England captain Jos Buttler expressed disappointment following the semi-final loss to India in the ICC T20 World Cup, acknowledging that the Men in Blue “outplayed” his team. He conceded that the Rohit Sharma-led side deserved their place in the final due to their superior performance on a challenging surface.
India will now face South Africa in the T20 World Cup final on Saturday, after securing a dominant 68-run victory over England at Providence Stadium, Guyana. The Indian spinners were instrumental in avenging their 2022 defeat, effectively neutralizing England’s aggression.
Buttler admitted that his team allowed India to score 20-25 extra runs and were “outbowled” by India’s bowlers. He also mentioned that the toss was not a decisive factor in the match’s outcome.
“India certainly outplayed us. We let them get 20-25 runs too many. It was a challenging surface that they played well on. They outplayed us and fully deserved the win. Very different conditions (than 2022), credit to India. They played a really good game of cricket. With the rain around, didn’t expect the conditions to change that much. Don’t think it did. They outbowled us,” Buttler said during the post-match presentation.
Acknowledging India’s dominance on the Guyana surface, Buttler praised the Indian spinners who took six wickets. He also commended his team for their resilience throughout the tournament, highlighting their ability to overcome various challenges.
“They had an above-par score. I don’t think that toss was necessarily the difference between the teams. They’ve got some fantastic spinners. They had an above-par score and with a brilliant bowling attack, it was always going to be a tough chase. With everything that’s happened throughout the whole tournament, really proud of everyone’s effort to be here. You can only play who’s put in front of you. We’ve had lots of adversities throughout the competition, we stuck well together as a group, and played some really good cricket in patches but came up short when it mattered the most,” Buttler added.
