England captain Jos Buttler, on Sunday (June 23), starred with the bat by smashing a whirlwind fifty to take his team to the semifinals of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
England had their back against the wall after losing their previous Super 8 game against South Africa and needed a big win against the USA to make it to the last four. And the defending champions reacted in style as they hammered the USA by 10 wickets at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.
Bowling first, England bowled out the USA for a modest total of 115 runs inside 19 overs. Chris Jordan starred with the ball as he picked up a hat-trick and finished the game with figures of 4 for 10. Sam Curran and Adil Rashid impressed with the ball as well, taking two wickets each.
Jos Buttler and Phil Salt had their task cut out when they came out to bat. England needed to chase down the total inside 18.4 overs to make it to the semifinals and their openers did not disappoint. Captain Buttler led from the front to help his side chase down the total in just 9.4 overs.
Jos Buttler's whirlwind knock:
After England collected only 6 runs from the first two overs, Jos Buttler broke the shackles in the third over by hitting Saurabh Netravalkar for two sixes and a four. He continued to hit the boundaries at will to help England finish the powerplay on 60 for no loss.
The highlight of his brilliant knock came in the ninth over when he smashed left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh for five straight sixes. After Phil Salt took a single on the first delivery of the over, Buttler hit the USA bowler for a six on the second ball to complete his fifty off 32 balls. He then went on to hit the next four balls of the over for sixes as well. Harmeet Singh eventually finished the over by conceding 32 runs.
Watch as Jos Buttler hits five sixes in a row:
View this post on Instagram
During his knock, Buttler also hit a gigantic 104-meter six as the ball landed on the roof of the stadium. Here is a clip of that huge six from the England captain:
View this post on Instagram
Buttler remained unbeaten on 83 runs from just 38 balls. His knock was studded with 6 fours and 7 sixes. On the other hand, Salt played the role of the second fiddle, scoring 25 runs off 21 balls.
from Cricket Addictor https://ift.tt/vOp1W5Z
via IFTTT