England captain Jos Buttler admitted that his side was outplayed by India in the T20 World Cup semifinals at the Providence Stadium. The defending champions’ chase of 171 came a cropper against the spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, prompting Buttler to admit retrospectively that he ought to have bowled the other spinner in his ranks – Moeen Ali.
On a pitch that played to type and got progressively low and slow while consistently offering turn, Buttler opted to chase. While he didn’t rue that decision at the toss, he conceded that India were allowed to score at least 20-25 runs more than what was par, which the England captain said was a failure in both plans and execution.
“A little bit of both. I thought they played well as well,” Buttler said. “I thought we bowled a little bit without luck in the power play, a few close calls there. But, yes, I think the benefit of hindsight and reflecting, I would have got Moeen [Ali] in the game of course. So, yes, bits and pieces here and there.
“Yeah, disappointing. I think we were outplayed by India. They fully deserved the victory. So, yeah, I thought they had an above-par score. I was hoping to restrict them to 145 – 150 probably on that pitch. It was always going to be a tough chase from there.”
Where England’s two spinners on the day – Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone – returned combined figures of 1 for 49 from eight overs, their pacers conceded 120 runs from 12 overs at 10 runs to the over. In contrast, India sent down 11 overs of spin which brought them 6 wickets for just 58 runs.
Axar Patel dealt the most telling blow by sending back the England captain with his first delivery and proceeded to strike at the start of his second and third overs – dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Moeen resepectively – before Kuldeep picked up three wickets of his own to send England’s chase into a tailspin.
“Obviously, they’ve got some fantastic spinners,” Buttler said. “Our two guys bowled well, but in hindsight, I should have brought Moeen [on] in that innings, with the way that the spin was playing. Obviously with the rain around in those conditions, I probably didn’t think it was going to change that much,” he added. “And I actually don’t think it really did. I thought they out-bowled us. They had an above-par score. So I don’t think necessarily the toss was the difference between the teams,” he added.
Defeat in Guyana meant Buttler’s England had failed to mount strong enough campaigns in two world title defences separated by eight months. While this semifinal appearance was markedly better than the doomed-from-the-start 50-overs campaign in India late last year, England did beat only one Test side – West Indies – in this tournament and almost seemed on their way home in the rain-affected clash against Namibia before the powering through when the weather cleared.
“Yes, I think reaching a semi-final of a World Cup is an achievement. We wanted to obviously go all the way. That was what we came here for. We faced lots of challenges and adversity throughout the whole tournament and we’ve stuck together well and played well enough to get to this stage. But unfortunately, at this stage, we’ve fallen short.
“I look back to Leeds when we all met up. I think everyone has made progress and we’ve played well and not well enough, but I think the stuff that we’ve been doing behind the scenes, the way we’ve prepared, the way we’ve trained, the way we’ve played in patches has been really good. And there’s a lot of talent in the team. And yes, we came up against a top team today in these conditions.
“To be honest, I’m just looking forward to some time away from the game. I think, as I sit here, emotional after a loss, I don’t need to dive too deep into it [reflecting on the tournament and the future] right now. I just look forward to some space from the game.”
