England captain Jos Buttler got his team’s T20 World Cup 2024 campaign back on track with a win against West Indies on Wednesday. England, whose campaign was dwindling courtesy of some poor results and rain-marred contests in the group stage of the tournament, looked at their best again as they took on England. En route England’s win, skipper Buttler went past Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan as the ‘designated wicket-keeper batter’ with the most runs in T20I history. Buttler scored 22-ball 25 in the match and took his tally to 2,967 runs in T20 international cricket. He averages 37.55 in the format, with a strike-rate of 146.30.
Mohammad Rizwan, on the other hand, has 2,952 runs to his name as a designated wicket-keeper. No other player in the world has scored more than 2,500 runs as a designated keeper.
In a game against West Indies, Philip Salt and Jonny Bairstow earn plaudits for their influential, unbeaten knocks, Buttler heaped praise on the veteran spinner for his economic spell.
The majority of the bowlers conceded runs at an economy of more than eight, and Rashid conceded runs at just 5.20.
In his four-over spell, Rashid gave away just 21 runs and took the prized wicket of the dangerous power hitter Andre Russell.
“He has been all the time. He is our most important player. Has so many variations and restricts runs,” Buttler said in the post-match presentation.
The West Indies managed to inflict two quick blows by removing Buttler and Moeen Ali. Bairstow and Salt eased the nerves with their composure and out-of-the-box shots.
After Salt raised his bat for fifty, he went berserk, smashing 30 runs in Romario Shepherd’s over to completely kill the West Indies’ chances of winning the game.
Their unbeaten 97-run stand took the game away from the West Indies and took England a step closer to victory.
“Bairstow-Salt partnership was very good. Jonny took the game deep and Salty broke it with that one over. Jonny batted at No. 4 today, a class player for a really long time. You keep backing class players. Incredible, mature, senior player’s innings. People say you learn when you lose, but you learn when you win as well. Important to put this to bed and focus now,” Buttler noted.
With ANI Inputs
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