It required Jacks’ 21-ball half-century to rescue England’s batting, after they had slumped to 105 for 5 in the 13th over. But even that didn’t look like being the day’s decisive contribution, as Ben Manenti cracked six sixes and Grant Stewart a further five, to drive Italy ever closer to another extraordinary upset.
Enter Sam Curran, charged with saving the day once again, just as he had done in their tournament opener against Nepal.
“I came on for the 17th over, and I was thinking, ‘how have we got to this stage? It’s one of those again…'” Curran told Sky Sports afterwards, having put the contest beyond doubt with another nerveless display of death bowling to finish with 3 for 22 in his three overs.
Despite a listless loss to West Indies, and another unconvincing victory over Scotland on Saturday, England had known that progression was entirely in their hands if they could just put their unfancied opponents in their place. But that proved easier said than done, with the sheer terror of a slip-up appearing to cramp England’s style from the get-go.
“I was nervous today,” Curran added. “You’ve got to be nervous coming into these tournaments. I had a joke with Morgs [Eoin Morgan] before the toss. He said these are the hardest ones to get through, because I don’t think England have a great record against the smaller nations.”
“I guess we’ve got a job done,” Curran said. “We can laugh about it, but there’s a lot we can get better at.”
Seemingly in a bid to address those anxieties up front, Harry Brook chose to bat first after winning the toss. It was a departure from England’s preferred option of chasing a known target, but also a show of faith in a lengthy batting line-up that, only five months ago, blitzed South Africa at Old Trafford to post the first 300-plus total in a T20I between Full Member nations.
“I guess it was a little bit of a risk, choosing to bat,” Curran said. “We felt like we were fractionally tentative with the bat in the last few games, and we almost thought, ‘why don’t we go out with that positive mindset, and try and put a big score on the board and take them down like that?’ But Italy put in a fantastic performance, had us 100 for 5, and myself and Jacksy had to regroup and go away from what we had planned a little bit.”
Until Jacks achieved lift-off, thanks in part to a crucial misfield on the cover boundary by Crishan Kalugamage, England’s innings was studded with four scores between 23 and 30, and not for the first time in a tournament in which Tom Banton’s 63 not out against Scotland remains their highest individual score.
“Cameos in T20 cricket can actually be better than they look,” Curran said, “in terms of the 20s off 10, the 20s off 15 … if everyone’s doing that, it helps. No-one’s really kicked on to that 70, 80, 85. But I guess you could see that as a positive. We managed to get our first goal of getting to the next stage.”
That was certainly Brook’s assessment as he fronted up in the post-match presentations. He had declared England’s batting to be “too careful” after the West Indies loss, and was once again bemused by the state of his previously frontrunning batting line-up.
“We haven’t played our best cricket, but at the end of the day, we’ve made it through, and we’re headed to Sri Lanka,” he said. “So we can be happy about that.
“It’s been a little bit of a trend, but T20 cricket is a fickle game. One day you can smack 100 and the next day you can get out first ball. So far, we haven’t quite been brave enough and taken on our options as much as we’d like to.”
The bravery has, at least, been showcased by the manner in which England have held their nerve in these tense encounters. Once again, their catching was excellent, with a series of clutch dismissals, while Curran’s cool head was on full display with the ball.
“I never really had any doubt with Sam and Jamie Overton to bowl the last couple of overs,” Brook said, maybe not entirely convincingly.
Even so, Curran could hardly have nailed his brief any better. In his second over, he was on a hat-trick as he suckered Marcus Campopiano with a full-toss into the body after a succession of yorkers on a wider line, then snicked off Gian-Piero Meade with a length-ball first-up. And then, after Adil Rashid’s final over had been cracked for 21, including three sixes, he finally ended any realistic doubt with the critical wicket of Stewart for 45 from 23.
“The over that Dilly bowled before me obviously got hit for quite a few,” Curran said. “In that situation, it just comes down to execution. There was a very short boundary behind me – I was thinking, ‘don’t look up!’ – but I’ve played a lot against Stewart in the county system. He’s obviously very powerful, and he’s got a great swing, but I tried to bluff him a little bit. I had no fielders on the leg side, and went straight to him. I guess that’s all the mind games.
“It’s hard,” Curran added. “I thought about going to one of my strengths of slow balls, but I’ve been really working on my yorker, because I still think it’s probably the best ball to bowl if you can execute. At the end of the day, you’ve got to back your gut feeling and put body on the line for the team.”
He at least is in fine fettle as England return to Sri Lanka for the Super Eights. And perhaps the chance to revisit the venue of their hard-fought 3-0 series win last month will help to settle some broader team nerves.
“We don’t hide from the fact we haven’t been at our best, and we probably have areas we need to improve, but I guess you got to look at the positives,” Curran added.
“We are a very honest group, and I think there’ll be honest conversations about how we can get better. We probably didn’t bowl that well. Italy struck the ball beautifully. And I think all the teams that we’ve played have come at us with a different intensity, probably more than we probably expected. But yeah, I guess it’s a good win in the end.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket