A win is a win, should have been the narrative. A messy, messy display for an England team plagued by various assessments of #disarray could stand as a step in the right direction, even if it doesn’t give them the confidence boost they had hoped for. It will be.
Instead, at the end of the day, instead of Jos Buttler’s voice saying ‘good teams win when they play badly’, it’s ‘good teams lose when they play well.’
“I thought we played well,” Buttler said in the moments after England’s four-wicket defeat in which the West Indies scored 113 off the last 61 balls of their innings.
“We were positive and aggressive and put pressure on the West Indies early on, even when we were pushed back people were positive enough to keep throwing punches.
There was a great partnership between Hope and Shepherd in the last 10 or 12 overs. So they can win the game.”
Two days ago, Buttler stood before the media and listed one of his key learnings from the World Cup was to take care of his game. Not for its own sake, but because of the connection between a happy butler and a happy England.
This is a man out of form and a team that has lost its knack for winning. Buttler’s 13-ball 3 and England threw away a win that looked impossible with the West Indies five down and just two ODI half-centuries left in their batting line-up. Happy Butler, Happy England. Gloomy Butler, Gloomy England.
Buttler batted 13 times in ODI cricket
Since September, Buttler has batted 13 times in ODI cricket, averaging 18.84 and failing to reach 50 once.
He has an average of 9.75 in his last eight innings. These are not selectively truncated sample sizes, which include three ODIs from March, three from 2022, and three from the Kerry Packer series.
This is the current form of the England captain and the greatest white-ball batsman of all time from his last block of cricket.
“I feel good, I just keep managing to get outs,” Butler said. “It’s frustrating, frustrating and I went on a lot longer than I would have liked but I can only make my runs, if I don’t sneak out there I won’t score.
“You keep working hard, the only thing you can do is keep working hard, put yourself out there, trust in what has served you well for a long time, and hope. That will change.”
Despite Buttler’s comments, England produced a performance that was less than the sum of its parts, but for so long it looked like it would be enough. Each showed glimpses of why they were selected, but none had a game that settled the nerves of this nascent white-ball side.
Phil Salt went to a flyer then got out, Will Jacks played a careful run-a-ball and got out, Zach Crowley got himself in, then got himself out. Etc.
However, it wasn’t the batting that was the problem. Heading into the series, England expected a shootout of 250-300 on wickets that had a lot of spin and variable bounce. And on a wicket that had a lot of spins and variable bounce, they scored 325, thanks largely to Harry Brook’s brilliant knock of 71. It looked more than par.
Of course, the failure to defend 325 cannot be blamed solely on the personal form of a struggling captain. However, the struggle of a leader is often taken by his followers.
All three of England’s new-look sevens failed to deliver, with only Gus Atkinson, who took 2 for 62, returning the figures they won’t win tomorrow morning. Bryden Carrs took just one wicket in eight overs, while Sam Curran’s 0 for 98 is the worst ODI figures for an England bowler in history.
Bowling the last over, Karan was hit by Shai Hope for three sixes over deep midwicket, a triple shock that gave him the record, Hope’s century, and West Indies victory.
It was a painful evening for Curran, who was anointed as England’s new bowler in the post-World Cup era. But since the start of the New Zealand series in September, he has played seven ODIs taken four wickets at 80.5, and conceded eight runs an over.
Buttler performed brilliantly in 40 overs
“In his 40 overs we did brilliantly,” Buttler defended his bowling group. “It’s always been a hallmark of West Indian cricket that they are excellent sixers and they’ve been able to find the ropes when needed.
We did a lot of things well with bat and ball, we just didn’t shut it down. A little execution here and there or we need to change our plans a little bit.”
All in all, Butler’s comments this evening are the best indication that this is indeed a new era. The team is new in format, new as a group, and doesn’t need public support from its captain, even if he misses out on a victory that should be routine.
But this is no longer Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. Buttler may find it odd to praise a losing team in public like this, but he would have seemed even more cruel in person if he had gone back to his dressing room at 20 on his first trip. Cheap
it’s fine. And reasonably good leadership. It’s just that when you lose that glow and start rebuilding, there’s no guarantee it’ll come back. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Erik ten Hague can testify to that.
