England skipper Jos Buttler was disappointed with the team’s performance against Afghanistan as the latter defeated defending champions by a 69-run margin in an ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Buttler opted to bowl first after winning the toss but couldn’t contain the Afghan openers as Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran stitched a 114-run partnership and the team eventually posted 284 runs on the scoreboard.
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“Yeah, a lot. I’m really disappointed. We’ve come here wanting to put in a really good performance. We got outplayed today. Afghanistan were fully deserving in their victory,” Buttler admitted during the post-match interaction with the media.
“It never feels good, you never like losing games of cricket or not performing to the level you want to,” Buttler said when asked to compare the latest defeat to the one they suffered against New Zealand in the tournament opener.
England bowlers started poorly, conceding eight wide runs in first five overs. The Afghan openers also made the most of it scoring 79 runs in the powerplay.
“No we started poorly, first ball of the game I missed one and it sort of set the tone for that first 10 overs, we didn’t hit the areas that we wanted to. And credit to Gurbaz, as he put us under a lot of pressure, played some good shots, but maybe a few too many easy boundaries in there,” Buttler said.
England spinners did put brakes on Afghanistan in the middle overs, but Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Ikram Alikhil fought back to get to a commendable total.
“…it took us a while to sort of get into the game and we came back well. And then maybe let them get a few too many more at the end,” Buttler lamented.
Buttler also termed the defeat as a setback but believes that the team can still make a comeback.
“Yeah, it’s a big setback obviously. Before the tournament starts you have a different idea of how the first three games would pan out. We’ve got to show a lot of character, a lot of resilience within the team and most of all a lot of belief,” he said.
Buttler said that he expected more dew in the second innings than what the conditions presented and accepted that they couldn’t play according to their plans and brand of cricket.
“Look, we always want to play positive and be aggressive and some days you don’t play as well as you want to. Though Afghanistan built good pressure on us, maybe the wicket didn’t play exactly how we thought it would play and maybe the dew didn’t come in as much as we thought as well.
“You know I think it’s a position you find yourselves in, it’s not the position you wanted to be in three games ago but the character is excellent as I’ve mentioned, there’ll always be belief and we’ll dust ourselves down and go again,” he said.
A question that will remain unanswered is if Ben Stokes’ presence would have made any difference in the outcome of the game. While Stokes came multiple times on the field, it was only to help his teammates with drinks.
“He wasn’t fit for this game but we’ll see how he pulls up for the next one,” Buttler answered.
The wicket-keeper batter also confirmed that they tried to follow India in selecting an additional pacer and keeping Moeen Ali out.
“The selection was – having watched the first couple of games here obviously India went with the extra seamer as well in their lineup we thought the wicket would play similarly and maybe the dew would come in in the second half. But no, I think whichever line-up we had, we just weren’t good enough today and we didn’t play well enough and full credit to Afghanistan, they deserve to win,” Buttler said.
England will next play South Africa in Lucknow in what will be significant in deciding their fate going ahead in the tournament.
A confident Afghanistan, meanwhile, will look to continue their winning momentum on a spinning Chennai track against New Zealand next.
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