[sport] The moments that turned England's World Cup around

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A T20 World Cup campaign that was almost ended miserably for England after two weeks has reached the final few days. The defending champions will play unbeaten India in the semi-finals in Guyana on Thursday at 15:30 BST. Earlier in the tournament, the futures of captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott were being questioned but instead they have turned it around to have a shot at a third T20 title. BBC Sport looks at some of the crucial moments in the recovery, including the stresses of supporting Australia, a relaxed training session and the impact of a local legend.Scotland stress after Antigua rain England were 46 minutes away from exiting the tournament when rain in Antigua threatened to wipe out their final group match against Namibia. But, having been put in the precarious position by a washout against Scotland and defeat by Australia, the weather mercifully cleared in time for England to complete a commanding win to put them back in a strong position to progress. They were still reliant on Australia beating Scotland later that night, however, in what turned out to be an evening of real stress. The England squad watched from their team hotel in Antigua as Scotland dominated much of the game, only for Australia to win it at the death to save their Ashes rivals. At one stage skipper Jos Buttler was so resigned to their exit he gave up and returned to his room. "A few of us were having dinner, watching the Scotland game and then it got quite close and some of us turned it off because we got a bit nervous," admitted all-rounder Sam Curran a few days later. Spirits lifted at a famous old ground England's lowest point came earlier that week when they arrived in Antigua on the back of the defeat by Australia. A day later Scotland comprehensively beat Oman to increase the jeopardy of their situation even further. Their first training session was at the Antigua Recreation Ground, ironically a site of English pain as the venue where Brian Lara hit his two world record Test scores. Buttler set the tone. He was not initially supposed to speak to the media but did so, fronting up as captain in an unusual change. He was relaxed, far more so than in a spiky interview before the opening game, and spoke of the "couple hours awake at night" because of the stresses of captaincy. England's players then warmed up by chasing and hitting each other with foam swimming pool noodles as their music boomed around the now derelict stands of the famous old ground.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/c9ee9np5yj0o