Jos Buttler delivers a century as England all but seal semi final spot
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00:00Hey guys, and welcome to Golf News coverage of the T20 World Cup. Delighted to be joined
00:15by our Golf News experts tonight who have just watched England beat Sri Lanka for their
00:20fourth successive win. First of all, I'll go over to Mr Cricket UAE, Anish Sarjan. First
00:26of all, what did you make of the England game and how great was Josh Butler?
00:29Hi Tom, hi Satish. The innings of Josh Butler was the difference between the two teams.
00:36He was not only brilliant, but fantastic. He ensured that when the spinners were on
00:41top of English batsmen, he played them out safely. And in the end, when Josh Butler is
00:46on fire, he took the fast bowlers apart and made sure that England scored a below par
00:52score. We have seen most of the teams batting for struggle, and this is how you bat on difficult
00:58pitches. You get your eye in, and once you are set, you make it count. And that is what
01:03made the difference. And of course, the fielding of England was again different compared to
01:08the way the other teams have fielded. The catches taken by Jason Roy and the other fielders
01:12in the boundary made the difference in England winning and losing this game.
01:16Obviously, Satish, England looked like they were in a bit of trouble for the first time
01:20in this tournament. 35-3 at one point, and then obviously Butler came into the zone.
01:27What did you make of that performance tonight?
01:30More than Butler, I would say they should be breathing a bit of a… or rather having
01:35a bit of a relief because Morgan is among the runs. He was not getting runs, and that
01:40was a crucial partnership between Butler and Morgan, which actually put them on the road.
01:45And see, Butler is another guy, as Anisbhai said. Butler, you don't need to tell him
01:50about his game. He is a perfect player. He doesn't play your T20 or one-day or a test
01:56match differently. He plays his shots and he is a copybook player who can play beautiful
02:00shots and his timing is exquisite. So, he doesn't have to try hard. So, as long as
02:05he stayed till the end, he can always increase the tempo, increase the momentum. And that
02:12must have given them a good, good advantage. I think Butler is opening, I think, for the
02:17first time, if I remember right, in this series. I think maybe… I might be wrong, but this
02:25is what I think. He is playing for the first time. I think that's where he requires that
02:29extra time to spend inside and then get his eye in and then he will be… He has always
02:36been brilliant, but he will continue to be so. And the advantage is that makes England
02:42even more dangerous because you have now about four guys, four batsmen, top four or five
02:47batsmen who are in form. So, they are coming into form just in time.
02:52Anish, you touched on it briefly just then about how good England's fielding was.
02:57I mean, the last 20 minutes, the players just seem to be in the right position every time.
03:02I mean, how much of that down to Owen Morgan's captaincy?
03:06Well, definitely credit to Owen Morgan. But today, they not only defied the Sri Lankan
03:11batsmen, but they also defied the dew. The dew was at its highest, I believe. It was
03:18not easy to grip the ball if you could see all the fielders or the captain trying to
03:22drive the ball off. And mind you, this is not the big ground. This is a small ground
03:26in Sharjah. And I thought Sri Lanka will pull this chase off. So, credit to England to keep
03:31their nerve. The inexperience of, of course, Sri Lanka did come into place, but to defend
03:37a target of 164 in Sharjah with so much of dew. So, you have to give credit to the captain,
03:46the bowling, the fielding. And that's what I was talking about that when you are setting up a
03:50target, it's not easy. Most of the times we saw in the IPL and in this World Cup, teams are not
03:55able to defend target. This is in fact only the second good team. One is West Indies defended
04:00against Bangladesh, and England now defending against Sri Lanka. Otherwise, it's been twice
04:05against Namibia and Scotland. I would give respect to them. But when you talk about good teams,
04:10it's not easy to set targets. And especially on the small grounds, England showed how to set a
04:15target and to defend it by good fielding. So, Satish, how great was that? And obviously,
04:19we've seen most, as Anish just said, most of these teams in this World Cup that have
04:25batted first have gone on to lose.
04:27No, no. Actually, if you lose the toss, basically, and you have to bat first,
04:35then the match is kind of gone here. That's a trend that's been going on. But they have buckled
04:40the trend in a pretty good manner. And they've given a big statement that, yes, do whatever,
04:46toss doesn't matter to us. They have the, see again, Timell Mills, Rashid, Moeen Ali, all these
04:55guys are bowling brilliant. And Jordan came up with a couple of good wickets at the crucial time.
05:00So, all these guys are doing well. And that's what I, they're getting better and better with
05:08every game. And they are actually living up to their favourite tag. And again, sorry, I think it
05:18also, as Anish Bhai said, it also boils down to Sri Lanka's inexperience slightly. But Sri Lanka
05:24did quite well with such a small team. And nobody expected them to give up such a good fight
05:30against, in the entire tournament, not just about England today, but the entire tournament,
05:35none of them even expected. And they were flying under the radar. And they did quite well in these
05:40matches. And they have not done bad for themselves at all. Anish, as you've already pointed out,
05:45and it's just been quite an unexperienced Sri Lankan side. But how impressed were you with
05:49them tonight? Very impressed, especially the spinners. I've always been a big fan of Hastanga,
05:55but that guy, the leg spinner, Mahesh Tikasana, he's not a leg spinner. He's a guy who bowls like
06:00Chakravarthy. He's got different variation. He's a mystery spinner. And I'm surprised they have a
06:05very good spinner sitting in the dugout. He's not been playing Dhananjay. Today was a wicket. And
06:13having seen the IPL, they should have definitely gone with three spinners. I know toss plays a
06:18crucial role. That's why probably they went with the pacers. So they did not know whether they're
06:21going to win the toss. But in the end, if you watch England, most of the job was done by Adil
06:28Rashid. They also made the part-time spinner Livingston bowl. So if Sri Lanka had that extra
06:33spinner, you never know. Because if you watch their fast bowlers, Chameera went for 43, Lahira
06:38Kumara went for 44, and the captain went for 24. So they have almost leaked more than 100 runs
06:44in 10 overs. Whereas the spinners, Hastanga went for 21, and Mahesh went for 13. So 34,
06:52and you're talking about 100, a difference of almost three times. That was the difference
06:56between the two teams.
06:58Now, final question to both of you. Are England the team to beat in this tournament?
07:05Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure they will be there in the semis. But again, the semi-final, the knockout
07:14is a different breed altogether. It's a different ballgame where on that day, your nerves, everything
07:20should fit in. And then it's anybody's game once you come to the knockout. But I think Morgan has
07:28got that strength and the capability. And now I think today he has become the most successful
07:35captain in T20. So I'm sure England will be the ones who will be, you know, like one of them,
07:43maybe, I would say. Like probably the other good team who are showing such wonderful
07:49all-round capability is Pakistan. So these are the teams who are really, you know, like
07:55at a different league altogether. But apart from that, I don't see many coming into that
08:01level at this point of time.
08:05You're absolutely right. England is the team to beat. Not only they are good in batting,
08:10bowling, and today they showed in fielding. And that is why they are one of the strong
08:15contenders. And like Satish mentioned, Pakistan is also looking good. But you never know in a
08:19semi-final game if England bat first and they come in this side of a corner against an experienced
08:24side. That is where, again, they will be tested. But yes, that is the team to beat at the moment.
08:30Okay, guys. Perfect. I think we'll wrap it up there then. Thank you for everyone for joining us.
08:35You can keep up to date with all the latest games live,
08:38plus reviews and analysis on golfnews.com. And we'll see you all shortly. Thank you.