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Jos Buttler says England ‘hurts’ after shocking World Cup loss as captain hints Ireland may have slowed excessive speed knowing rain was on the way and they were ahead of DLS
- England suffered a humiliating defeat to Ireland at the T20 World Cup
- They were five runs behind DLS’s par score when rain halted the game
- Captain Jos Buttler said his team should think about what went wrong
- They now face a crunch meeting with host Australia at the MCG on Friday
- Buttler suggested the Irish bowler might have slowed down the overrate
- But he said England shouldn’t have been behind the DLS score in the first place
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Jos Buttler said England was ‘hurtted’ after Ireland took one of the troubles of this or any of the Twenty20 World Cup to take one of the biggest wins in their history.
When it rained at the MCG and England needed 53 balls from 33 with five wickets remaining in a Super 12 ‘local derby’, the DLS method gave Ireland a well-deserved five-run victory.
“I think we should let this hurt,” Buttler said. ‘Days like today are very disappointing and you have to feel that. There’s no point in saying ‘let’s sweep it under the rug and move on’. We have to think and act quickly.
Jos Buttler said England should think about what went wrong in their loss to Ireland
England captain congratulates his Irish colleague Andrew Balbirnie after the defeat
“I think, especially in the first 10 overs with the ball, we were way below the standards we set ourselves.
“We let Ireland get rid of us and although we did drag it back in the second half, we were under a lot of pressure from the start.”
England captain Buttler didn’t argue with umpires Paul Reiffel and Adrian Holdstock’s decision to eliminate the teams, even though Moeen Ali had just taken leg spinner Gareth Delany for 14 runs off three balls and could have won the match with a six on the next.
“It got pretty tough to be honest,” Buttler admitted. “Of course we would have liked to have stayed and tried to get a couple of sixes if we could, but the rain got too much. I think the match was already lost before that.
The players had left the field for another rain delay when the confirmation of victory came
When the covers returned to the field to extend the match after the cut-off time, Ireland was ahead
“We didn’t get where we needed to be all game long and Ireland deserved to win.”
But Buttler did agree that there may have been a little playmanship from Ireland in slowing the game, which was postponed at the start, with more rain on the way.
They were two overs short of where they should have been when the game was cancelled.
“Whether it’s game skill that they knew the rain was coming and slowing it down, I don’t know,” Buttler added.
Buttler runs away after being fired by Irish bowler Josh Little for a duck with two balls
“But we had everything in our favor and if we had been up front on DLS they wouldn’t have slowed the game down, so we should have taken responsibility ourselves and never let it get to that position.”
Mark Wood, again England’s outstanding three-wicket bowler in Ireland’s 157 all out, blamed himself as part of an underperforming England attack.
“I’m quite angry and disappointed with myself,” Wood told the BBC. “I think I could have bowled a lot better on that wicket. If I just look at myself, I could have been a lot more consistent and not have given away so many four balls.”