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After the win in fourth T20I, captain Suryakumar Yadav promised fireworks at Wankhede Stadium and young opener Abhishek Sharma delivered. The fans were treated to hard-hitting of highest stature as Abhishek dismantled England bowling lineup. Seeing the ball sail over the ropes, England captain Jos Buttler admitted that one point of time he feared that they might concede 300. He lauded Brydon Carse and Mark Wood for staging England's comeback.
"At one point, I was thinking I don’t want to be the team that concedes 300 for the first time. The guys stuck in and we had two commendable performances from Brydon Carse and Mark Wood. We were really outplayed."
Carse picked three wickets whereas Wood claimed two. They were the only ones in the England bowling lineup who conceded runs at less than 10 runs per over.
Buttler lauded young opener Abhishek who whacked 13 sixes and seven fours in his 54-ball 135.
"I’ve played quite a lot of cricket and credit to Abhishek Sharma. That was one of the best T20 knocks I’ve been on the receiving end of. You always sit down and think what more could we have done or how we could have stopped him, but some days I think you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition. He played brilliantly well," the 34-year-old said.
On February 2, India registered their highest powerplay totals in the format. They posted 95/1 on the board. Abhishek reached his century from 37 balls, the second-fastest for India after Rohit Sharma. The southpaw helped India post 247/9 on the board, their fourth-highest total in the format.
Record-breaking defeat won't change the way England play
Chasing a target of mammoth target of 248, England batters failed with the exception of opener Phil Salt. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 55 runs from 23 balls but England were bowled out for 97 in just 10.3 overs. Jacob Bethell was the only other batter who could score in double digits as England suffered a collapse of epic proportions. England lost the match by 150 runs, their biggest defeat in the format (by runs). Buttler defended the team's approach and said that England won't change the way they play.
"With the bat, I’ve played in a few games like this and it generally goes one of two ways: you either get somewhere near or you fall in a heap and today was that day. We certainly won’t change the way we want to play, we need to keep backing that, be even more committed and be desperate to do well and execute that," Buttler said.
England will have a chance to show their attacking approach in the upcoming three-ODI series against India starting on February 6.
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