Image Credit- ICC
England captain Jos Buttler acknowledged that his side had been well outclassed in their 68-run loss to India in the Guyana T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final, but he maintained that his choice to bowl first after winning the toss had not had a major impact on the outcome.
Buttler said that India’s total of 171 for 7, helped by his counterpart Rohit Sharma’s 57 from 39 balls and Suryakumar Yadav’s 47 from 36, was “20-25 runs too many” after giving up first use of a spin-friendly surface that was likely to get slower and lower throughout the day.
In response, Axar Patel delivered the match’s pivotal blow with his opening ball when Buttler top-edged a reverse-sweep to the keeper in the fourth over of the powerplay to leave England for 23 from 15. England were bowled out for 103 in precisely 100 deliveries.
Axar then removed Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow with the first ball of each of his next two overs, en route to winning Player of the Match with 3 for 23, before Kuldeep Yadav’s left-arm wristspin tore through an unprotected middle-order to finish with 3 for 19.
“They certainly outplayed us,” Buttler said at the post-match presentation. “I think maybe we let them get 20-25 runs too many. That was a challenging surface that they played well on. But they outplayed us and fully deserved the win.”
Play was delayed by over an hour due to morning rain, which reappeared midway through India’s innings. England chose to stick with the seam-heavy lineup that had seen them through the Super Eight, keeping Chris Jordan and Reece Topley ahead of an extra spinner in Tom Hartley and Ben Duckett’s ability to turn the ball.
But Moeen Ali went unnoticed, perhaps because of the wet circumstances in the first part of India’s innings. Buttler not only acknowledged that he had made a mistake by ignoring Moeen, but he also acknowledged that Rashid and Livingstone’s eventual impact had made him dread what India’s powerful spin attack could accomplish on the same surface.
“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.”