England captain Jos Buttler has admitted his biggest tactical mistake in the semi-final loss at the hands of India at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. England couldn’t chase 172 runs and surrendered meekly for just 103 runs after opting to bowl first. But Buttler backed his decision at the toss stating that the game wasn’t won or lost at that stage while admitting that he didn’t use this third spinner available at all during the innings.
Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone conceded only 49 runs combined in eight overs with the former even getting the prized scalp of Rohit Sharma. But England pacers ended up going for 120 runs in the rest of 12 overs that eventually hurt them. They had another off-spinner Moeen Ali in their line-up who didn’t bowl at all probably due to match-ups but in hindshight, Buttler felt he should’ve taken the bait given how tough it was to score off the spin bowlers.
“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,” Buttler said after the match.
On the contrary, India’s spinners came early into the attack with Axar Patel making an instant impact dismissing the England captain off the very first ball. Axar and Kuldeep Yadav shared six wickets equally while Ravindra Jadeja went wicketless but scoring wasn’t easy even against him. Buttler lauded India’s spinners and admitted that the men in blue outbowled them.
“Obviously, they’ve got some fantastic spinners. 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.
“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,” the England skipper further said.
