England skipper Eoin Morgan heaped praise on Jos Buttler amidst speculation over his batting position in T20s, labeling him as one of the nation’s greatest cricketers in LOIs. As it eventually did transpire, Buttler opened the innings in the final outing of a crunch series, returning with a blistering half-century at the top of the order.
Following a couple of last-gasp finishes in the T20I series, the tussle at SuperSport Park was beautifully set up, more so after the hosts finished with 222-6 in their 20 overs. The Three Lions lost Jason Roy early on to Lungi Ngidi, but Buttler (57 off 29) paired up with Jonny Bairstow (64 off 34) before the captain struck it as sweet as a whistle to steer his side home with five balls to spare.
Earlier, following consecutive failures in the opening matches of the series, many critics and purists suggested reimbursement of the Roy-Bairstow combination at the top.
Speaking ahead of the game, Morgan, who carted the SA bowlers with seven sixes in his whirlwind 57 off 22, disapproved of the popular opinion. He said:
“Not for Sunday, definitely not. Jos is one of our greatest white-ball cricketers, as a batsman, never mind with the gloves. We believe him, Jason (Roy) and Jonny (Bairstow) are our top three at the moment, moving forward.”
Earlier, all-rounder, Moeen Ali had indicated a possibility of Buttler being pushed down the order to fulfill the finisher’s role.
“The lucky thing is that we can change it and we’d be just as strong or even stronger. Jos is brilliant at No. 5 but he’s also brilliant when he opens. So sometimes when he bats at five and plays the way he does, people say he could open and bat like that and bat for longer. Jos is one of our best finishers, but as a 5, 6, 7, 8 we have to get better as well. We can’t just rely on him. If he comes off at the top, we win the game in 10 overs,” he had mentioned.
South Africa squandered yet another series lead; a bi-lateral competition that could have swung either way. They will now take footnotes from this series and aim to beat Australia in their next T20I series beginning from February 21. Meanwhile, England next take on Sri Lanka later in March.
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