Bethell goes into a bubble to almost burst India's dreams at Wankhede

Jacob Bethell lay flat, face down, on the red-soil pitch at Wankhede. His bat was face up, Bethell having lost his grip when he threw himself forward, like a swimmer taking a plunge, nearly two or three feet forward, trying to beat Hardik Pandya's throw from long-off as he tried to complete two runs on the first ball of the final over of the semi-final, with England needing 30 runs from six balls.

That was the only mistake Bethell committed - not being proactive enough to turn back faster and finish the two to keep the strike and keep England's hopes alive - in an otherwise impeccable innings, the best in the match. As Bethell lay there, helmet on, arms outstretched, feet flayed, Wankhede erupted in joyous raptures. Hardik celebrated, nearly gyrating near the boundary, facing the fans, who had worked themselves into a state of frenzy as soon as Sanju Samson broke the stumps.

Even Jasprit Bumrah, in an uncharacteristic act, bared his emotions, screaming in relief, metres from where Bethell lay, before he picked himself up and walked off, defeated.

Till then, Bethell had rattled India with an innings of bravado, intensity and high craft against the best bowling attack at the World Cup. Harry Brook had committed himself early on to the very first ball Bumrah had bowled, a slower, which Brook could only play with hard hands to Axar Patel, who took the first of the two spectacular catches on the night, both nominees for the best catches of this World Cup. England's most dangerous batter was out and their hopes were extinguished, most people believed, including some experts on the broadcast.

On the second ball he faced, Bethell, who replaced Brook, punished Bumrah for bowling down the leg side with fine leg inside the circle with a powerful flick for six. But it was what he did in the next over, the final over of the powerplay - also Varun Chakravarthy's first over - that first suggested Bethell was on his way to doing something ridiculous.

The first three balls of the mystery spinner's over were hit for sixes, the final one being among the most amazing you would see: a reverse lap over the point boundary. Such a high-skill stroke requires the batter to get into the proper position by switching his feet before doing the job with the bat: clobbering the ball out of the ground. All this without losing balance or shape. Bethell did it effortlessly.

In the next over, Bethell displayed his innovative stroke play once again as he quickly jumped into an open-chested position and then reverse lapped Hardik over the short-third fielder for four. Varun changed ends for his second over. He also placed a deep backward point to guard the reverse sweep, which Bethell is happy playing. Bethell stayed deep in his crease and lofted Varun for a six over long-on first delivery. Next ball, spotting Varun go wide of the crease from around the stumps, Bethell backed away to access the empty region behind cover. This he did by playing with a straight elbow and full bat face, bringing those wrists into play.

On match eve, Sam Curran had said that England would know they were doing well if the crowd fell silent. For large parts of England's innings after Bethell's arrival, the crowd was silent. While Will Jacks and Curran provided robust support from the other end, Bethell was now floating in a bubble where he read the bowler's plan and reacted smartly while never once looking especially keen.

While the asking rate mounted rapidly against the bowlers that would bowl the majority of the final ten overs - Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik - Bethell was not deterred. Cutters, dipping yorkers, wide yorkers, slow bouncers, wide deliveries bowled to force him to fetch the ball - he encountered all of it without batting an eyelid. In his final over, Arshdeep bowled a slower delivery, which was lofted over mid-off for six. A wide yorker followed, but Bethell stayed in his crease to stretch outside off to deftly send the ball racing to the deep-third boundary to move six short of a century.

Afterwards, Samson, the second best batter of the game, doffed his hat to Bethell, crediting the batter for keeping up with the incredibly high asking rate until England lost momentum in the final three overs.

"T20 cricket is going somewhere else - no one can understand," Samson said. "We knew they [England] would go hard at us in the powerplay but when three wickets fell in that phase then I thought, okay now the game is in our control. But the way Bethell batted, I felt no, it's still possible. They needed 13 runs an over. They were getting two boundaries every over. It was getting very easy for them in the middle overs."

For Brook, Bethell's knock was "ridiculous". "He was in his own bubble and it's an amazing feeling," Brook said. "You feel like you could hit nearly every ball for six, and it was one of those innings tonight that he's pulled off."

Bethell is the first England player to score a century in the Ashes and a T20 World Cup. Both those centuries, though they came in defeats, will be talked about for a long time. On both occasions, Bethell was mostly on his own. He is 22 but was not fazed by the task at hand on both occasions.

Brook said Bethell would earn serious money in his career. No money can buy a World Cup medal. Bethell nearly, nearly got England closer to the final until he ran himself out, finishing on the floor, on his face.