T20 World Cup: England beat USA to book semi-final place, Chris Jordan scores hat-trick

England defeated the USA in Barbados to advance to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup – with Chris Jordan scoring a brilliant hat-trick.

The defending champions faced elimination in the group stage earlier this month but dragged themselves into the Super 8 phase.

The clear victory by 62 balls put them above South Africa in net run rate and secured a place in the semi-finals.

England’s victory means that the final match between South Africa and the West Indies will be a do-or-die battle for a place in the semi-finals.

Jos Buttler won the toss and had no hesitation in putting the USA on the field – a pitch where he believed the batting would improve as the day went on.

Reece Topley’s line was a little off in his first over and Andries Gous bowled him a six off the fourth ball of the innings.

The last ball of the over was also on the leg side and Gous tried to replay the ball but he did not get a clean contact and Phil Salt simply caught the ball at deep midwicket.

Steven Taylor struggled to break the pitch and his 12-run-per-ball innings ended when Moeen Ali deflected a slower ball from Sam Curran with a sharp catch to the left.

Adil Rashid is a master at bowling the middle overs in T20 cricket and his variations were too much for Aaron Jones (10). Leg-spinner, leg-spinner and slider were followed by a googly and Jones bowled all around and lost his middle stump.

Liam Livingstone’s spin variations complemented Rashid well and he took the wicket of Milind Kumar (4), caught by Buttler after a wild hit.

While the pace of Topley and Curran pleased the US batsmen, Rashid (2-13 from 4 overs) and Livingstone (1-24 from 4 overs) slowed the innings.

Harmeet Singh grabbed a four and a six off two consecutive balls from Curran in the 18th over, but when he again tried to clear the fence, he was caught by Jordan and made 21 runs off 17 balls.

After taking a catch at the end of the 18th over, Jordan took four wickets – including a hat-trick – in the 19th over on the island of Barbados, where he was born and raised.

“It was an incredible feeling,” Jordan said. “More importantly, keeping them at bay with what I thought was a solid fielding effort.”

“But doing it in such a special place is always nice.”

Jordan’s brilliance ended the USA’s innings with 115, leaving England with a simple task: score 116 in 18.4 overs and secure a place in the semi-finals.

Buttler and Salt needed a few overs to assess the situation before opening their shoulders in the third.

The England captain damaged a solar panel on the Weekes, Worrell and Walcott Stand when he hit a 104-yard six-ball onto the roof.

At the end of the powerplay, England were 60-0 up and Buttler continued his attack.

With six strokes over par and one long off, he reached his fifty in 32 balls, his first of the tournament.

While Jordan took four wickets in one over, Buttler took five sixes in one over against Harmeet – in the fifth he smashed another solar panel – so that England reached 110-0 after nine overs.

It was fitting that Buttler scored the decisive runs, finishing with 83 runs off 38 balls, showing England were not willing to give up the title.

“I’ve felt good all year,” Buttler said. “You don’t always get the right results, but I’ve been hitting the ball well and it’s nice to have that important confidence.”

“I’m still one of eleven and I have to do my job.”

England brought in Jordan for Mark Wood and Buttler said that shows they still have a lot of assets up their sleeve.

“We have great options,” Buttler said. “We wanted to bring CJ back to add a little more depth to the lineup with his all-round skills.”