England survive Italy scare after Manenti’s blitz threatens T20 World Cup shock

Italy threatened a shock at the T20 World Cup before Sam Curran and Jamie Overton shut them down in the final two overs to put England through to the Super 8 stage

If England keep up the winning habit, perhaps in time they will get good at it. Under the lights here in Kolkata they did enough to beat Italy and secure a spot in the Super 8s, though not – again – establishing themselves among the form teams of the tournament.

Harry Brook had declared he would “rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start ­amazing and finish bad”, and in that sense alone it is proceeding entirely according to plan. The next stage is unlikely to be so forgiving.

“They were better than us for quite a lot of the game,” said Will Jacks, whose 22-ball 53 was ­decisive. “­Winning ugly is important, but hopefully we’ve had enough ­practice at that and we don’t have to do it again, because it is nerve-racking.

“Coming in to today, my own expectation was, we want to win ­easily. We don’t want it to be that close and feel those nerves. We’ve done it the hard way, we’ve not made it easy, but the most ­important thing is we’re on to the Super 8s.”

Once again the full member nation beat the associate, but they endured plenty of awkward moments along the way. Set a target of 203 and reduced to one for two at the end of their first over, Italy simply refused to accept they were beaten.

Even when they needed 64 from the last four overs, with three ­wickets remaining, they kept going: Grant Stewart, on his way to 45 off 23, hit two sixes off Jofra Archer’s final over and two more off Adil Rashid’s and suddenly English nerves were jangling again.

Sam ­Curran then did his death‑overs thing, Jamie Overton finished the job and Italy were all out for 178, England winning by 24.

Ben Manenti’s innings of 60 off 25 will grab the attention, but this was an excellent all-round performance from Italy. There were a couple of mistakes in the field, but their catching was impeccable, most notably Anthony Mosca, stooping while sprinting forwards from deep ­backward square leg to dismiss Phil Salt. Their batting, as the world’s 23rd-ranked team facing No 3, was ambitious, brutal and, at times, brilliant.

“Every player went for their shots straight away,” said Jacks, whose two overs went for 34. “The opener tried to hit Archer for six second ball, that signalled their intent. Every time we got a wicket, they kept coming.

“I felt I had to be completely on the mark or else I was going to go out the ground. That’s not a great place to be as a bowler.”

Manenti and Justin Mosca produced the best partnership of the match and for every moment they were at the crease England’s grip on victory appeared less secure. Coming together with their team 22 for three they added 92 off 48, hauling Italy from apparently inevitable disaster and back into contention.

England were only able to breathe – and even then briefly – when ­Manenti’s vicious assault on a Jacks over, which had already brought him two sixes and two fours, ended with him picking out Tom Banton at long-on.

It was Jacks’s explosive ­half-century that powered England towards a match‑winning total, the 27-year-old inspiring a late acceleration during which their score bloomed from a concerning 124 with five overs and five wickets remaining to a much more mighty 202.

It became in certain respects the innings this team is built for, ­plumbing the full extent of their batting depth with something that resembled efficiency: Archer, the only player not classified as a batter or an all-rounder who had to strap on his pads, came in with three balls remaining and faced one of them.

If the view at the end of their journey was handsome enough, the route there was often ugly. Much about England’s innings was wearyingly familiar, starting with the fate of their openers. As he had against Scotland in their previous match, Jos Buttler sent a leading edge looping high to mid-on after scoring three off four.

Salt, who in England’s second game scored 30 off 14 against West Indies before being caught in the deep, scored 28 off 15, but met an identical fate.

This partnership has been one of the team’s great strengths, but when they falter their teammates seem, at best, uncertain, flirting occasionally with panic.

But if no batter until Jacks stayed around for long enough to chisel their name into the headlines, most made useful contributions. Like the team in this group stage they did not did excel, but they did just enough.

“We’ve still got time to peak,” Jacks said. “The overriding theme is success, because we did what we wanted to do. I’m very happy with that, but we know we can be a lot better.”