Mumbai clash could set Twenty20 benchmark

Three hundred and seventy five days ago, England were knocked out of the World Cup by Bangladesh, defeat in Adelaide the denouement to a tournament in which they played cricket that was stilted, tense and, in its lack of ambition, positively archaic. 

In the minutes after England’s defeat, head coach Peter Moores gave an interview in which he was quoted as saying “we’ll have to look at the data” in response to a question about the loss. 

Quick Single: Epic Root knock sees England triumph

It turned out that he was misquoted – he actually said “we’ll have to look at that later” – but it was enough to cement his team’s image as a side utterly bereft of joyless cricket.

How far England have come in limited overs cricket since. 

They have preached uninhibited batting at every turn, and topped 400, for the first time ever in ODIs, in their first completed post World Cup match. 

Eoin Morgan has moulded a group of batsmen who are encouraged to play with élan, empowered to trust their shot-making ability without fearing for their places.  

But all the talk of newfound freedom would count for little until England showed the merits of their new approach in a world event. 

And, though they batted well enough against the West Indies to reach 182, Chris Gayle was in the mood to make the target look puny.

So, 48 hours later, England prepared for their match with South Africa in the knowledge that a defeat would as good as send them out of the tournament. 

They responded with an egregious bowling performance, spraying the ball around on both stumps off the stumps and offering up copious full tosses. 

Even their fielding, normally exemplary, was rather shoddy. 

Chaos ensued. 

Although Ab de Villiers contributed just 16, England were plundered for 229 runs in 20 overs. 

England faced being knockout of the World T20 some 48 hours after their campaign had begun. 

After all the optimism preceding the tournament, this would rank among England’s most ignominious exits from an ICC world event.

But if despair overcame England, never once did they show it. 

Jason Roy has learned that Morgan makes good on his promises to let his batsmen attack without recriminations when it goes wrong: he slapped the first ball England faced after the World Cup straight to backward point, but the newly enlightened regime thought no worse off him.

For English cricket lovers, the sight of T20 pyrotechnics from Roy have become a ritual of long summer nights. 

Here he greeted Kagiso Rabada as if he possessed all the venom of a genteel county trundler. 

The first two deliveries of England’s innings were thrashed through the offside for four, and then a lavish pull and – best of all – an exquisite straight drive followed. 

This was dazzling orthodox batsmanship adapted for the T20 age. 

When five wides were added, the upshot was that Rabada had haemorrhaged 22 runs from his opening over.

With each of Roy’s boundaries, so the trueness of the pitch was conveyed to England’s batsman. 

So, too, was the realisation that this was a wicket on which seamers, no matter how quick, would be mercilessly punished for anything full.

Still, no one dared imagine that it would be enough to give England much chance of pulling off such an extraordinary heist. 

But England attacked unremittingly in the Powerplay, promoting Ben Stokes to number three in a sign of intent. 

The upshot was a remarkable 89 runs. 

If these came at a steep cost of three wickets, the upshot was that England needed only 10 an over thereafter.

For today’s leading batsmen, scoring at 10 an over in T20s has come to seem as routine as scoring at five an over was for leading ODI players a generation ago. 

And Joe Root is the archetype of the modern batsman, a man who can score with alacrity with no discernible effort or risk. 

Quick Single: Social media erupts over brilliant Root

Here, he produced a T20 innings for the ages. 

It was not so much about his dazzling shots, although there were no shortage of those – a reverse sweep for six off Chris Morris was the most arresting – as what he did in between times. 

From only four of his 44 balls did Root fail to score, and the effect was to prevent South Africa enforcing any pressure. 

To see him at the crease was to see the task of scoring at 10 an over, as England needed to after the Powerplay, metamorphose from the herculean to the mundane. 

Seen Root’s way, 10 an over only entails hitting one boundary and one two every over, with the other four deliveries going for singles: it is this philosophy that explains how he is able to score so quickly, here managing a strike rate only just shy of 200, without taking any discernible risk. 

In Root lies a reminder that, for all the specialisation and innovation that characterises modern T20, at its core the game rewards good batsmanship. 

And there are few better exponents of it in today’s game than Root, a multi-faceted cricketer far less perturbed about switching between formats of the sport than most of us are about switching brands of morning cereal. 

Where T20 goes next is not clear. 

We might reflect on the events in Mumbai as a seminal moment in the game, T20’s equivalent of the 434 match in Johannesburg a decade ago. 

Or perhaps it was simply as an intoxicating freak, a cocktail of a flat pitch, short boundaries, ragtag bowling and fielding from both sides and supreme excellence from a plethora of batting titans. 

Either way, it is a game whose highlights are destined to live a long afterlife on sports channels the world over.