India through to 2026 T20 World Cup semi-final with victory over West Indies

by Devesh Jaganath

image India through to 2026 T20 World Cup semi-final with victory over West Indies
India became the fourth and final team to stamp their ticket to the 2026 T20 World Cup semi-final by edging the West Indies to a five-wicket victory in Kolkata on Sunday evening. The Men in Blue will now face England in the final four in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon.

Sanju Samson helps keep India’s T20 World Cup title defence alive 

Twenty teams arrived in the sub-continent for the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup last month, and now only four are left standing, as India became the final team to secure their place in the semi-final of the competition by beating the West Indies by five wickets at Eden Gardens on Sunday afternoon. 

The Windies got off to an excellent start, with Shai Hope and Roston Chase taking on India’s opening bowlers from the off. They got to 68/1 before Hope was bowled by the number one-ranked bowler in T20Is, Varun Chakaravarthy, in the ninth over of their innings. 

Shiron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell and Jason Holder all made important contributions at better than a run a ball, helping the team to a defendable total of 195/4 overs. The latter also became the first West Indian to hit 150 sixes in T20Is. 

Chasing the sizable total, India got out the blocks quickly with Sanju Samson signalling his intent early on, but Abhishek Sharma, who has arguably been the biggest underperformer for India in this competition, had another disappointing knock, managing just 10 runs in 11 balls. 

Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya also failed to make much of an impact, with all three failing to reach 20 runs, but Samson paved the way, scoring an unbeaten 97 off just 50 deliveries to steer his side to victory with four balls to spare. Shivam Dube also ended not out on eight runs. 

 

South Africa remain unbeaten at 2026 T20 World Cup 

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Earlier in the day, South Africa produced another impressive performance in their final match of the Super 8 and confirmed our cricket predictions by beating Zimbabwe by five wickets and with 2.1 overs to spare at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. 

The Chevrons enjoyed a breakthrough tournament this year as they came through the group stage unbeaten, but their run came to an end after losing to India last Thursday. Still, they have plenty to be proud of from their performances and could be one to watch in the next edition. 

The Proteas, on the other hand, are now the only team to have won every match in their World Cup campaign and are widely considered the favourites to win the title after finishing as runners-up in a thrilling final that went down to the last ball against India back in 2024. 

Aiden Markram’s side will now face New Zealand in the first semi-final at Eden Gardens on Wednesday, with the winner progressing to take on either India or England in the grand final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, March 8.