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Cricket PlayersLucky Buttler takes England to crucial victory
The England skipper scored a 47-ball 73 but only after being dropped twice
Gifting a life to Jos Buttler, even in a tournament he hadn’t exactly lit up by his dazzlingly bright standards, is inviting trouble. Gifting him two is embracing it.
Dropped on 8 with Kane Williamson failing to hang on to the ball diving backwards—he thought he’d “squeezed the catch into my chest” before the umpires’ review had him to apologise to the batter—and then on 40 with Daryl Mitchell spilling a sitter, the English skipper made New Zealand pay with a 47-ball 73 in his team’s 179/6.
England appeared to be in the mood to return the favour as Moeen Ali couldn’t even get his hands to a dolly offered by Glenn Phillips, whose brilliant 62 (36b) steadied the chase as well as applied the kick. But the English bowlers remained disciplined and clever with their variations in pace on a used, sluggish Gabba surface to deliver a 20-run win.
Coming on the back of two wobbly batting performances—one resulting in a rain-curtailed defeat to Ireland—and a washout with Australia, this was more England-like from the pre-tournament favourites. The critical win also sets up Group 1 for an interesting finish in a three-way, five-point tie with Sri Lanka breathing down for the semi-final tussle.
The result doesn’t hurt New Zealand, still atop with a healthy net run-rate (NRR) and Ireland up next, too much while it lifts England and dents Australia. The hosts will have to beat Afghanistan handsomely to boost their negative NRR and apply some pressure on England, who play Sri Lanka a day later and will know exactly what to do. A defeat, of course, will likely end the English hopes.
Much like the scenario on Tuesday. The England bowlers though were clinical from the get-go defending the good total. The dangerous Kiwi openers were sent back inside the powerplay, Buttler flying to his right to pluck out a Devon Conway ramp and Sam Curran getting Finn Allen caught at midwicket off a slower one.
When Ali dropped Phillips at the halfway mark, New Zealand were ambling at a little over a run-a-ball. That swung the momentum and Phillips took a particular liking to Adil Rashid in creaming him for consecutive sixes. Ben Stokes halted it by removing Williamson (40, 40b) and breaking the 91-run stand in the 15th over.
With 54 needed off 24 balls and James Neesham back in the shed, Kiwis’ hopes rested largely on Phillips continuing the charge. Enter Curran again with those cutters to get his man holed out at long-on in the 18th over.
That was the game for England, set up by the willow of their leader.
The mouthwatering Boult-vs-Buttler dish was served early, but it was Alex Hales who got a lucky inside edge off the left-arm pacer’s inswinger. While Buttler took time to find his rhythm, Hales broke free, smacking Tim Southee for a straight six and backing away for a couple of fours over cover as England motored to a 48-run powerplay.
The Kiwi spin duo of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi exploited the tired pitch and varied their lengths well to bottle England up in the middle phase; together their figures read 8-0-48-2. The former threw one wide and had Hales (52, 40b) stumped after a pace-setting fifty, the latter got the southpaw Moeen Ali—pushed to No 3 to counter the spinners—caught at long-on.
Buttler, meanwhile, kept the scoreboard ticking against them with the odd reverse-sweeping boundary. With pace back on, he took it up a notch. The 13th over from Lockie Ferguson saw three fours on either side of that straightforward spill by Mitchell at deep square leg. Even Boult wasn’t spared the Buttler fury; a flat-batted, tennis forehand-resembling straight six off a back-of-a-length delivery the standout strike.
At 148/2 with three overs to go, England eyed a total in excess of 180. But with a scooping Liam Livingstone four-and-out, a bludgeoning Harry Book six-and-out and a dictating Buttler run-out, they stumbled a tad towards the end to just about set that target.
