Cuttack, Feb 9 After suffering their fourth consecutive ODI series defeat with a four-wicket loss to India at the Barabati Stadium on Sunday, England skipper Jos Buttler admitted that they could have reached 350 in their batting innings if some batters had spent more time at the crease.
Electing to bat first on a black soil pitch, Joe Root and Ben Duckett smashed 69 and 65 respectively while Liam Livingstone applied finishing touches with his 41 as England posted a mammoth 304 in 49.5 overs but they lost their last seven wickets for 85 runs, after being primed to make 330 at one point.
Though England batted for longer periods and got past 300, it wasn’t enough for them to stop India from winning the game, with captain Rohit Sharma’s masterly 32nd ODI century leading their charge to chase down 305 with 33 balls to spare.
“I thought we did a lot of things well, and we got into some nice positions with the bat, but we need a few of us to catch fire and push us to 350. Another great innings from Rohit; he's been doing it in ODI cricket for a while. Maybe it skidded on a bit and played well but the opposition played well. We tried to get to 330-350, maybe that would have been defendable. Just keep taking steps in the right direction though results are not there but we need to keep going,” said Buttler in the post-match presentation ceremony.
India vice-captain Shubman Gill, who made 60 and shared an opening stand of 136 off 100 balls with Rohit, said he felt good while batting in the middle and had fun being alongside the skipper.
“Was feeling good when I was batting out there and obviously batting with Rohit bhai, he makes it look easy. The way he took on the bowlers, we have seen that in the last couple of years how he has batted in ODIs and the way he dominated the bowlers today was a treat to watch. It was a good wicket to bat on, the odd ball was keeping a bit low but overall a good wicket. The chat was simple, just play according to the ball and try and dominate when you can,” he added. The final ODI between India and England will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
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