England vs Italy, 29th Match, Group C, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

Italy with another fine performance. They have exceeded expectations with the way they have played. England haven't played to the best of their abilities so far but still manage to go to the next round. On that note we end things here. The toss has just happened in the Sri Lanka v Australia game. Do head over there to catch up on all the action. For now, from here, it's bye bye.

Harry Brook | England captain: "We haven't played our best cricket, but at the end of the day, we've made it through and we're heading to Sri Lanka, so we can be happy about that. (on their batting, not capitalising on the starts) Yeah, it's been a little bit of a trend so far in this competition. We haven't managed to string along the scores that we'd like to do as a batting unit, but that's part of T20 cricket. It's a fickle game. One day you can smack a hundred and the next day you can get out first ball. We've just got to keep on being brave and taking our options on. (on their bowling and fielding) Yeah, I thought we fielded excellently. We bowled nicely as well and I never really had any doubt there at the end with Sam and Jamie Overton to bowl the last couple of overs. (on Sam Curran) Yeah, he was awesome. He has been throughout this comp so far and we've managed to scrape through, but along there's been some good performances, especially from him and Will Jacks, who has stepped up when we've been in tricky situations. That's really good to see. (on Archer bowling three up top) Well he was on a little bit of a heater. When Jof is on a heater you want to try and get as much out of him as possible and try and put a real big dent into the opposition. And he did that today with his first couple of overs. (on playing in Sri Lanka recently) We've obviously played there before. We had a couple of weeks there, so we know what the conditions are like. So we've just got to go back and do what we were doing whilst we were there, which is adapting. But like I said a minute ago, make sure we're being brave with the bat, especially. You've only got 20 overs to bat and you've got to try and get as many runs as possible. And that's probably been our little downfall in this group stage so far, is we haven't quite been brave enough and taken on our options as much as we could do."

Harry Manenti | Italy captain: "Yeah, I think we always knew that England were going to come hard, and that's the way they play their cricket, and it's entertaining. But we knew if we could try and take wickets throughout the start of that game, we're always in it for the middle and the back-end. (on Jacks) Yeah, I think he batted excellently and showed that when you take it deep, when you've got that power in their lineup, that anything can happen really. But we were trying to do our best on a smallish field on a good wicket against a really good lineup to try and minimise their total where we could, and we knew that wickets at the front-end would hopefully do that. As you can see, 200 wasn't that far above par today, but yeah, we probably let them get a few too many which hurt us in the chase. (on Ben Manenti) Yeah, that was some impressive hitting. We lost a few early and for him to come out and just strike the ball from the get-go, really put pressure on England. And if you see that towards the back-end, Grant Stewart did the same thing when he came out. And it showed that when you get a little partnership together and put some pressure on, then anything can happen. (on their performances, what do they need to do to tajke that step up?) Yeah, I think a lot of the Associate nations, have really put some pressure on some big nations and that's really exciting from the game's point of view, I think. We're one of those teams who today, we put some pressure on England and we had no right to really. Against Nepal, we played a really good game of cricket as well. So I think that it's impressive across the competition that that's happening. Good for the game, especially with 20 teams in the competition. But I think it's just a matter of games under our belt in those situations against class opposition. You know, one of the top ranked teams in the world for us, who are ranked 27th to be coming out here and putting pressure on them is something that we should take great belief in that we can keep doing that moving forward. (on his emotions when Ben got out) Firstly, I was proud of him. I've seen how hard he works, especially on his batting as well, which probably doesn't get as much of a look in. And tonight he got an opportunity to show the world how good he is with the bat. I thought he bowled a really good first few overs. He got a bit of a tap in that last one, but that's T20 cricket. But it was one of the big components of why we were in this game tonight. And, you know, the same thing with Grant Stewart at the end. Like, he's a lower-order batter usually in Kent in the county system and for him to come out tonight and show what he is capable of doing is proud for me as a captain and player of Italy cricket. So hopefully we continue to get these opportunities to show how good some of our players are on the world stage. (on their last game) Yeah, we've got nothing to lose. We came in today thinking the same thing. For a lot of players it was probably their biggest game that they have ever played in their careers, and for some, the biggest game they will ever play, so we've got another opportunity against a really strong West Indies side who have shown their power and their ability, and it's up to us to try and go and compete again and really push them to the limits, and I think that's our aim across the whole competition."

20th over maidens in T20 World Cup
3/0 - Mohammad Amir vs AUS, Gros Islet, 2010
2/0 - Jamie Overton vs ITA, Kolkata, 2026

Most sixes by an associate team in a T20 WC inngs
19 - NED vs IRE, Sylhet, 2014
13 - USA vs CAN, Grand Prairie, 2024
13 - ITA vs ENG, Kolkata, 2026*
12 - SCO vs AUS, Gros, Islet, 2024

Will Jacks | Player of the Match: "We spoken about the last few games keeping our intent up. I think we've been a little bit static at times and we understood it was a very good surface and we know this is incredibly fast scoring ground. So you never know batting first what is enough. So that was the intent the whole way through. (first 50 in T20Is) Yeah, it feels like that's been a long time coming. There's been a few role changes in there and taken a while. So it's nice to get that one. I feel like I'm settling into my role down the order quite nicely now. (key areas to score?) Always look straight. It's a short boundary down the ground and they were looking to hit the blockhole late. So we always aim straight and adjust from there. (on Ben Manenti's wicket) Yeah, well he played unbelievably well and he was striking the ball better than any of us. Originally I was trying to bowl full and straight and missed slightly and he was good enough to hit that. So I tried to change and go wide and thankfully got that wicket. If he batted for a few more overs, who knew what could have happened. (confident going into the next round?) Yeah, well that's the most important thing that we've qualified. It doesn't matter how you do that. We know we need to be a lot better. Simple as that. We're going to Sri Lanka now, different conditions, new opposition. We've got a lot of stuff to work on and we'll try our best."

18:24 Local Time, 12:54 GMT, 18:24 IST: Another superb effort by Italy but they fall short. When Ben Manenti was going so strong, it gave England the jitters. After smashing 20 in 4 balls in that over, he still wanted more and holed out to long-on. That's when the game swung England's way. Still Grant Stewart didn't give up and it came down to 30 off 2 overs. Sam Curran as he did against Nepal bowled a fine 19th over and Jamie Overton finished with a double wicket-maiden in the last over to seal things. Earlier, Anthony Mosca and Smuts went for ducks in Archer's opening over. Harry Manenti also didn't make many and then the stand between Justin Mosca and Ben Manenti put Italy right back on track. Some incredible batting from Ben and his wicket proved to be to a major turning point. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...

Jamie Overton to Ali Hasan, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Now the game is done.

Jamie Overton to Jaspreet Singh, THATS OUT!! Caught!!