Wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler scored a century (131 off 64 balls) and added 233 runs for the second wicket with captain Harry Brook (95 not out off 45 balls) on Saturday (July 11) to help England crush India by 56 runs in the fifth and final T20I and win the five-match series 4-0. The superb knocks by Buttler and Brook helped England post a record total of 257/3, and in reply, India could only manage 201/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
Ishan Kishan (56 runs from 35 balls) and Tilak Varma (53 runs from 24 balls) scored half-centuries for the visitors, but their knocks failed to help India avoid the embarrassment of losing a fourth match in a row.
The win over India in the last match of the series also help England move to the No. 1 position in the ICC
Men’s T20I Team Rankings.
This was also the sixth game that India lost under new captain Shreyas Iyer which has resulted in BCCI calling for a review of this shambolic show.
Whatever good things were achieved under previous head coach Rahul Dravid have been completely undone by Gautam Gambhir in trying to put his own stamp in the current set-up.
Currently, it is a dressing room which is divided with lack of trust among the players due to constant chopping and changing which brews insecurity.
While the attack at all costs philosophy worked well on Indian featherbeds with short boundaries, India’s IPL Czars learnt the hard way that one-size-fits-all strategy doesn’t always work.
If Brook raced off the blocks to complete his half-century off just 19 balls, Buttler, the veteran, upped the ante reaching the three figure mark which his younger teammate missed by five runs.
Buttler’s first 50 came off 34 balls and the next fifty came off just 17 more deliveries as he switched gears with effortless ease.
His innings had 12 boundaries and eight sixes. This was 35-year-old’s second T20I hundred and his career-best knock.
With series already in the bag, the duo put the Indian attack to the sword with some of the cleanest hitting that one would have witnessed at the Rose Bowl where Shreyas won his fifth toss and opted to field.
