Jos Buttler-led England National Cricket Team took on the Suryakumar Yadav-led India National Cricket Team in the fourth T20I of the five-match series on Friday, January 31.
Jos Buttler’s Team England showcased a great fight in the match but lost by 15 runs at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. With this, they also lost the T20I series.
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England face defeat in a thrilling match
For the first time in the series, Jos Buttler won the toss and England bowled first in the match. They were off to an exceptional start, reducing the hosts to 12/3.
They picked two more quick wickets to reduce India to 79/5, but after that, they were taken to the cleaners by Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube. Eventually, they stopped India at 181/9.
Chasing the target, Harry Brook and Ben Duckett played explosive innings. However, the poor performance from the rest of the batters meant that they were bowled out for 166 in 19.4 overs.
We should have gone on to win the game – Jos Buttler
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Jos Buttler lauded his players for starting off well in the match but was frustrated after ending up on the losing side.
“We started brilliantly, taking wickets in the powerplay and we were in a great position at the end of the batting powerplay. We should have gone on to win the game,” Jos Buttler stated.
Buttler added that dropping Shivam Dube was the big reason behind their defeat as the all-rounder slammed a brutal fifty. He said:
“We did some really good things in the game. We dropped Dube first ball and he went to play a really good innings. With the bat, we were in a fantastic position and lost a couple of key wickets.”
How did England perform in the previous T20I vs India?
England emerged victorious by 26 runs in the third T20I against India in Rajkot. Batting first, the visitors posted a total of 171/9 in their 20 overs, which proved enough to win the match.
Their innings began on a poor note as Phil Salt (5) was dismissed early. However, Ben Duckett smashed a quickfire 51 off 28 balls, including 7 boundaries and 2 maximums. Jos Buttler contributed with a valuable 24, before being dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy.
Liam Livingstone (43) provided some fireworks, smashing 1 four and 5 sixes, but was dismissed by Pandya while trying to clear the long-on boundary. England’s lower order showed some good fight and contributions from Adil Rashid (10*) and Mark Wood (10*) helped the team reach 171/9.
During the run chase, the Indian batting order struggled to get going. England’s bowlers struck at key moments, reducing India to 31/2 inside the first 4 overs.
Adil Rashid dismissed in-form Tilak Varma, and Jamie Overton took the wickets of Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, and Mohammed Shami. With key wickets falling at regular intervals, India never looked in control and finished with a total of 145/9.
