India vice-captain Axar Patel joked that the ball was "chasing" him throughout England's run chase after his individual brilliance on the field made a decisive difference in the defending champions' nervy seven-run win in the high-scoring T20 World Cup semifinal here. On a belter of a track at the Wankhede, 499 runs were scored with England just falling short in their mammoth chase of 254.

India, who were guilty of dropping as many as 13 catches heading into the semifinals, upped their game on Thursday with Axar setting a rather high benchmark. He got rid of the dangerous Harry Brook and Will Jacks in two different yet important phases of the game. The in-form Brook perished in the powerplay and it was down to a superhuman effort of Axar, who ran 24m backwards from the cover position to pull off a stunning catch off a slow-cutter from Jasprit Bumrah. Axar's second act of sheer brilliance came in the 14th over when Jacob Bethell and Jacks threatened to take the game away from India.