India will need a “special performance” to beat a “street-smart” England in their T20 World Cup semi-final in Mumbai, bowling coach Morne Morkel warned on Wednesday.

Sanju Samson’s sparkling 97 not out enabled India to chase down 196 against the West Indies in a winner-takes-all clash on Sunday in Kolkata.

Morne said India would again need someone “to put their hand up” against Harry Brook’s side on Thursday night to keep the nation’s dream of a home World Cup win alive.

Morkel agreed India had not put together a flawless display in the tournament yet, but said that did not matter.

“We haven’t really spoken about the perfect game,” Morne told reporters at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium after India’s final training session before Thursday’s big clash.

“It’s not about how you get to the semi-finals. It’s about the next two games, how we’re going to play there.

“I think the quality of this team has been shown that on the day somebody will put their hand up.

“Then hopefully, especially tomorrow night, we can put that special performance in.” It is the third T20 World Cup in a row that India will play England in the semi-finals.

Both previous times the winners went on to lift the trophy.

In 2022, England crushed India by 10 wickets in Adelaide and beat Pakistan in the Melbourne final.

Two years ago India won in Guyana by a similarly dominant 68 runs before downing South Africa in Barbados.

This time, though, India will have the backing of 35,000 fiercely partisan fans in Mumbai.

“It’s a big occasion tomorrow night here, a semi-final, a great stadium to play a great game of cricket,” said Morkel.

“So hopefully the boys can rock up tomorrow and just be calm and execute those skills.”

India are leaving nothing to chance in their preparations.

Training on Tuesday night was delayed by an hour so it did not coincide with a lunar eclipse, which is considered unlucky in India.

“I was told about the lunar eclipse and the session was pushed backwards,” admitted Morkel.

“I think the most important thing to focus on was the quality the guys put in at training, which was great to see.”

India hosted the T20 World Cup in 2016 and lost in a Mumbai semi-final to eventual champions the West Indies.

India are wary of the threat posed by England, who were shaky in the group phase but powered through the Super Eights with wins over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand.

“They’re a team that’s street smart. Obviously there’s a lot of quality in their side,” said Morkel.

“Their batting is deep, which makes them a very dangerous side. With the ball, they’ve got a lot of attacking options,” he said.

“The way they approach a T20 game, fearless, trying to take the game on, will give you opportunities.

“Tomorrow is going to be a good shoot-out between two aggressive teams.”

South Africa play New Zealand in the first semi-final later on Wednesday.

MADRID: Real Madrid fell to a damaging 1-0 defeat by Getafe at home in La Liga on Monday, leaving them four points behind leaders Barcelona.

Alvaro Arbeloa’s side, beaten by a superb volley from Martin Satriano, suffered a second consecutive loss in the Spanish top flight for the first time since 2020.

Real forward Franco Mastantuono was sent off in stoppage time for apparent dissent to make a bad night worse for Los Blancos.

“Obviously it’s a match where we could have done things better, but I think my players tried and we had more clear chances than them,” Arbeloa told reporters. “However in football deserving isn’t enough, and Getafe played a great game.”

With French superstar Kylian Mbappe in France to treat a knee sprain, Real lined up with Gonzalo Garcia in attack alongside Vinicius Jr at Santiago Bernabeu.

Real were beaten at Osasuna last weekend, allowing rivals Barca to overtake them in the title race, and Hansi Flick’s side stretched their lead by thrashing Villarreal on Saturday.

Vinicius, in excellent form in 2026 after an inconsistent start to the season, spurned a fine early chance.

The winger burst through on goal but David Soria saved well with his leg.

A brilliant roulette from Arda Guler nearly earned Real the breakthrough but Soria tipped over the Turkish forward’s strike.

Getafe were upset by a painful collision between Real’s defender Antonio Rudiger and Diego Rico, in which the German’s knee knocked the Spaniard’s head.

Uruguayan forward Satriano broke the deadlock with a delicious strike from the edge of the box after compatriot Mauro Arambarri nodded the ball into his path.

Soria, who had a fine game, saved from Vinicius in the second half and the Brazilian called for more support from Real’s fans.

However the team were not giving them much to get excited about, although Rudiger came close to levelling with a header.

It was a disjointed display from a Real side who visit Celta Vigo on Friday in La Liga, before hosting Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League last 16, unsure if top scorer Mbappe will be fit to play.

In stoppage time Mastantuono was dismissed, seemingly for something he said to the referee, before Getafe were also reduced to 10 men when Adrian Liso kicked the ball away and was shown a second yellow card.

“Nobody here is throwing in the towel, this is Real Madrid, you don’t give up until the last game,” added Arbeloa.

“Four points is a distance that we can cut back and we will fight for that.”

Jose Bordalas’s Getafe rose to 11th and were able to celebrate their first win at the Bernabeu since 2008.

“It’s very hard to get points when you come here, I have to congratulate the team for the work in defence, then we got our goal and we could even have scored another in the end,” said Getafe defender Kiko Femenia.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2026

LONDON: Fast bowler Haris Rauf has been designated a marquee player as six Pakistan international cricketers made the top 50 “hero” list for this year’s men’s Hundred auction.

Fourteen Pakistan men’s players in all are included in the long list of 247, despite reports their players would not be considered by the four Indian-owned franchises amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighbouring nuclear-armed countries. This year’s Hundred also clashes with a Pakistan Test series.

Right-armer Haris, 32, joins South Africa pair of Aiden Markram and David Miller, New Zealand’s Daryl Mitc­hell and West Indies spinner Sunil Narine in the group labelled “Mar­quee Players Intern­ational”, and carries the maximum reserve price of £100,000.

Players were required to submit themselves for entry into the auction, with the eight franchises each submitting a list of 75-100 player nominations from which the longlist was decided.

The top 50 “hero” players were broken down into categories, with Pakistan paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi, all-rounder Shadab Khan and spinner Usman Tariq each listed in tier one while all-rounder Saim Ayub and spinner Abrar Ahmed feature in tier two. Saim nonetheless opted for the top reserve price.

Pakistan actually has the most representatives of any overseas nation among the top 50, one ahead of South Africa.

Sahibzada Farhan, the runaway leading run scorer at the ongoing T20 World Cup, is a notable absentee with the contingent of 14 Pakistan players completed by all-rounders Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir and Imad Wasim and pace bowlers Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Zaman Khan, Akif Javed and Salman Mirza.

The four Indian-owned franchises are MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Manchester Super Giants and Southern Brave.

A total of 63 men and four women from Pakistan applied for inclusion in the respective auctions, with spinner Sadia Iqbal and all-rounder Fatima Sana making the women’s longlist at reserve prices of £15,000 apiece.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2026