Phil Salt in action for England in T20 World Cup 2024© AFP
England cricket team batter Phil Salt continued his tremendous run of form as he slammed West Indies bowler Romario Shepherd for 30 runs in an over to guide his side to victory in their T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 match on Thursday. Chasing a target of 181, Salt provided the perfect start to the innings for England his unbeaten 87 proved to be deciding factor in the encounter. During the 16th over of the match, Salt, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, produced a display of sublime batting as he slammed Shepherd for 3 fours and 3 sixes to score 30 runs in just 6 balls.
Salt started the over with a boundary through extra cover to bring up his half-century and followed it up with a six straight down the ground. The next ball was a slower one but Salt read it early and slammed it for a four. The pressure was too much for Shepherd as he could not maintain his line and length.
Phil’s Asu!
Back-to-back sixes from #PhilSalt ensured the defending champions cruised smoothly in this run chase!
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— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 20, 2024
A wide delivery outside the off-stump went for six over long-off while the fifth delivery of the over was once again a six as he sailed over backward square leg. The final ball of the over turned out to be a juicy full-toss and Salt needed no further invitation to slam it over the wide mid-off fielder for another four.
England went on to win the match by 2 wickets. After the match, England cricket team skipper Jos Buttler was all praise for Salt and his destructive batting in such an important match.
“That’s a really good performance from us, we executed well with both bat and ball. I thought we bowled really well to restrict such a powerful batting line-up, still we had to chase it down. but smart play from us. The partnership between Salt and Bairstow was great. I brought Jof back there, Pooran and Russell coming in, two of the best batters in the world, so we brought our best bowler back in. (On Adil Rashid) He’s a really important player, he has got so many variations and restricts runs. He batted at No. 4 today, he is a class player and we have decided to keep backing our class players. It was an incredible innings, a mature senior player’s innings, he batted with a lot of power. A lot of people say you learn when you lose but I also feel you learn when you win, important to reflect on our performance and look back what worked for us and focus on the next game,” Buttler said at the post-match presentation.
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