England captain Jos Buttler has admitted he made a mistake in not bowling Moeen Ali as India surged to a match-winning total in the Guyana T20 World Cup semi-final.
Rohit Sharma’s side posted 171-7, 68 too many for England, whose trophy defence ended at the penultimate stage. Key was how they took down England’s quicks, with Jofra Archer and Reece Topley each conceding more than eight an over, and Chris Jordan and Sam Curran plundered for over two runs a ball.
In contrast, the eight overs of spin bowled by Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone went for 49 runs in 48 balls, and slow bowling continued to be a factor in the second innings. Like India, England managed to score off the quicks, Arshdeep Singh’s two overs going for 17 and Hardik Pandya sent for 14 in his solitary over. But the spinners proved decisive as Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja returned combined figures of 6-58 in 11 overs.
India have thrashed England to secure their place in the 2024 T20 World Cup final 🔥
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 27, 2024
Scorecard: https://t.co/g6rJlpHBxu pic.twitter.com/I0S8RJmaeC
Off-spinner Moeen Ali, England’s other bowling option, went unused, and speaking to the host broadcaster after the game, Buttler admitted his error.
“Obviously they’ve got some fantastic spinners,” he said. “Our two guys bowled well. In hindsight, I should have bowled Moeen in that innings, the way that spin was playing.”
However, Buttler defended his other big call, to bowl first upon winning the toss. England became the first team in a decade to lose a men’s T20 World Cup knockout while chasing, but Buttler felt the possibility for inclement weather made batting second the correct call.
“With the rain around, the conditions I didn’t think would change that much, and actually I don’t think it really did,” he said. “I thought they outbowled us, I thought they had an above-par score, so actually I don’t think the toss was the difference between the teams.”
Follow Wisden for all T20 World Cup updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights and video analysis.
