Ahead of England’s ICC World Twenty20 final against West Indies tomorrow, wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler talks ecb.co.uk through their previous matches in the tournament.
England lost to West Indies by six wickets
“We were pretty happy, if someone gave us 180 to start with we would be happy with that, but in hindsight we probably knew we were a bit short and a bit under par. But it was a fantastic innings by Chris Gayle, who can do that sort of thing. Even as an opposition player, everyone who was at that ground saw a great innings from him. That is the beauty of Twenty20 cricket, it is always going to be close or it can take one or two guys to stand up on their own for their side. I think that is why Twenty20 cricket has become a real force around the world.”
England beat South Africa by two wickets
“We were laughing after the semi-final win that a final of the World Cup seemed a long way off at half-time chasing 230 in Mumbai. But I remember watching, I always sit by the TV to start with, Jason Roy get us off to an absolute flyer. That momentum that we got at the start of the innings that score just seemed so attainable once we got that start. I remember everyone sitting there thinking we only need 10 an over and it just seemed like we were going to do it. Joe Root played an unbelievable innings to get us pretty much the whole way there. We had a bit of panic when we lost those two wickets in the last over, but Mo will tell you he was cool and calm and got us over the line.”
England beat Afghanistan by 15 runs
“Moeen and CJ, initially, and then David Willey, two great partnerships to get us up to a good score. We were sat there thinking ‘here we go again’ playing against an associate nation, not through lack of respect, but they are always tricky games. At the last World Cup I was part of the side that lost to Holland so I was sat there thinking ‘here we go again’, but luckily that is the strength of the side that we bat to number 11 and we had the players there who could easily bat in the top five down the order who could get us to a good score.”
England beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs
“Another fantastic game. We were reasonably happy with our score, we knew we could have got a few more, but batting first we would take that. To get them four down early a lot of us thought we had done it and the game was won. Like I said earlier about one person having a good day in Twenty20, Angelo Mathews got on a roll and that momentum can be really hard to stop. We needed some good overs at the back end there, from Chris Jordan and Stokesy, to really see that game through.”
England beat New Zealand by seven wickets
“I think that is our best bowling performance so far. They got off to a good start but David Willey picked up an early wicket, as he usually does, and they were 90 for one after 10 overs. I don’t think I have ever played in a Twenty20 game where we have had such a good 10 overs, restricting them to 60-odd. Those death overs from Chris Jordan and Stokesy, to pick up wickets like that really stifles teams and gets two new batsmen in at the end. From then that seemed like a really attainable score. Jason Roy has been threatening to do that sort of thing for a long time, as everyone has seen, and I think he will really kick on and really show just how capable he is. There is a lot more to come from him but what a great innings and, at that time, again shows what kind of characters we have in the team that he wants to step up and be that person who wants to take the limelight and show off what he can do.”
Source: ECB