Photo Credit: BCCI
Jos Buttler praised the character of his England teammates as they come through a tough test against Sri Lanka in Sharjah.
Opening the batting, Buttler won his side the match with his maiden T20I century coming off only 67 balls and was one of several fielders to excel as England beat Sri Lanka by 26 runs.
England were put into bat for the first time in Sharjah and Buttler believes his side did well to deal with the dewy conditions.
“It’s hard to guess if the dew is going to come in or not,” he said.
“Obviously tonight it did and I think it certainly changed conditions. I think it was a great win for us as a team.
“The three matches before we’ve won the toss and done what we wanted to do, so today to be probably on the worst end of the conditions showed character for what we did as a side.
“One of our bowlers getting injured, guys having to step up and bowl some overs at the tough times, the character in the group and what that will do for us as a side is fantastic.”
With England all but confirming their place in the semi-finals with their fourth win out of four, the shine of the victory may have been taken off somewhat by the loss of Tymal Mills to a quad injury midway through his second over.
However, captain Eoin Morgan got his batting back on track – making 40 off 36 in a partnership of 106 with Buttler, something he believes will give them belief.
Buttler said: “Setting a target, the game’s not laid out for you, especially finding it tricky, early on, soaking up some duck balls and you can put yourself under a bit of pressure.
“But believing that at some point I’d come good and I enjoyed batting with Morgs I think, he is a great person to have at the other end and we worked it through together.
“I’m delighted we put that partnership together and got us off to a spot which turned down with the way that things conditions when we needed every run.”
While Sri Lanka were not able to get the victory, Wanindu Hasaranga was once again the Lions’ star player – delivering with both bat and ball.
The No.2 T20I bowler in the ICC MRF Tyres World Rankings followed on from a hat-trick in his last match by taking his side’s best figures of three for 21, before making a valiant 34 off 21 balls in the chase.
Hasaranga said: “These England players are brilliant and I bowled two overs in the powerplay and only conceded five runs so I am very happy.
“Bowling my final over in the 19th, there was a little bit of pressure with Buttler and Morgan playing really well at that time.
“I tried my best and got the wicket of Morgan.”
