England faced a significant setback in their campaign to defend their T20 World Cup title against India, losing the second semi-final by 68 runs.
However, Jos Buttler, England captain did not attribute the loss to his choice of bowling first after winning the toss.
“Given that there was rain about, we felt as though the conditions would stay like that and they did – they just played better than us and put up a very good score. So I don’t think the flip of coins made any difference between us,” noted Buttler (as cited in Reuters).
Rain delayed the game and a wet outfield. Nonetheless, with sunshine breaking out and coin going up into the air Buttler chose to chase. This decision was probably influenced by his preference for chasing targets and expectation of more showers at Providence Stadium in Guyana.
“Our two bowled well but in hindsight, probably should have bowled Moeen in our innings with the way spin was playing. ”However with a good score and their brilliant bowling attack it was always going to be a tough chase” said English skipper.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma applauded this decision since he scored India’s only half century leading them to set up 171-7 as target on a pitch that progressively became more difficult for batting.
He conceded that England had given away 20-25 runs too many on an unresponsive wicket. At one point England’s batting line-up struggled as they were left sitting at 49/5 before collapsing particularly against Indian spinners Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav who took three wickets each.
It meant that India would meet South Africa at Bridgetown in what would be an interesting match involving unbeaten sides from both teams throughout this event.
