Southampton, Jul 11 (PTI) Jos Buttler rolled back the years with a breathtaking 131 off 64 balls, and was beautifully complemented by skipper Harry Brook as England sent a demotivated Indian attack on a leather hunt posting a record 257 for 3 in the inconsequential fifth T20 International here on Saturday.
Buttler and Brook added a whopping 233 runs for the second wicket, a record partnership for any wicket in the history of T20Is and set England on course to end India’s 1601-day reign at the top of ICC’s T20I rankings. If Brook (95 not out off 45 balls) 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 Iyer won his fifth toss and opted to field.
While Prasidh Krishna removed the dangerous Phil Salt early, caught at deep fine leg boundary, things went downhill for the visitors thereon.
Between Buttler and Brook, they hit as many as 16 sixes — eight each.
The pull by the former skipper while taking the top hand off the bat handle off Prasidh over fine leg was certainly the stand out shot off the innings.
He had earlier thumped the pacer over long-on for a six. He would stand and deliver, bringing the Indian attack on its haunches.
On the other hand, Brook’s footwork against Axar Patel (0/63 in 4 overs) was pure class as he danced down the track to loft the bowler for a couple of sixes in the 10th over which yielded 25 runs. The wheels of Indian attack came off after the end of that over.
Prince Yadav also got a rare pasting going for 60 in his four overs.
When it came to pacers, Brook held his shape for the fuller ones and for the slightly back of length stuff, he would make room shuffling towards the leg-stump to cart the deliveries over extra cover and long off.
With Harshit Rana out of the rest of the tour (including ODIs) with a grade 1 hamstring tear, the team management was compelled to field Suryansh Shedge (0/39 in 3 overs), who is far from being a finished product who could be unleashed in international cricket. Iyer gave him a third over, in which Shedge completely lost his length to give away 24 runs.
In the next over, a nervous Prince was given a proper hiding with 21 runs coming off it. After a certain point, skipper Iyer was seen standing near the boundary, resigned and looking a bit lost. PTI KHS KHS UNG
