File photo of Jos Buttler.© BCCI
After suffering their fourth consecutive ODI series defeat with a four-wicket loss to India on the Barabati Stadium on Sunday, England skipper Jos Buttler admitted that they might have reached 350 of their batting innings if some batters had spent more time on the crease. Electing to bat first on a black soil pitch, Joe Root and Ben Duckett smashed 69 and 65 respectively while Liam Livingstone applied ending touches along with his 41 as England posted a mammoth 304 in 49.5 overs but they lost their last seven wickets for 85 runs, after being primed to make 330 at one point.
Though England batted for longer periods and got past 300, it wasn’t enough for them to stop India from winning the sport, with captain Rohit Sharma’s masterly 32nd ODI century leading their charge to chase down 305 with 33 balls to spare.
“I assumed we did lots of things well, and we got into some nice positions with the bat, but we want a couple of of us to catch fire and push us to 350. One other great innings from Rohit; he’s been doing it in ODI cricket for some time. Perhaps it skidded on a bit and played well however the opposition played well. We tried to get to 330-350, perhaps that might have been defendable. Just keep taking steps in the fitting direction though results should not there but we want to maintain going,” said Buttler within the post-match presentation ceremony.
India vice-captain Shubman Gill, who made 60 and shared a gap stand of 136 off 100 balls with Rohit, said he felt good while batting in the center and rejoiced being alongside the skipper.
“Was feeling good after I was batting on the market and clearly batting with Rohit bhai, he makes it look easy. The way in which he took on the bowlers, we have now seen that within the last couple of years how he has batted in ODIs and the way in which he dominated the bowlers today was a treat to observe. It was a superb wicket to bat on, the odd ball was keeping a bit low but overall a superb wicket. The chat was easy, just play in accordance with the ball and take a look at and dominate when you’ll be able to,” he added. The ultimate ODI between India and England will happen on the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
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