The England captain Jos Buttler was obviously very disappointed with the way his team lost the first ODI game against India at Oval yesterday, but he had a very interesting way of describing the defeat in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Jos Buttler, when asked about his assessment after the absolute hammering that his team took at India’s hands in the first ODI, Buttler said, “We came third in the two-horse race today”.
It was quite an honest assessment by Buttler who was probably trying to convey the fact that there was absolutely no competition between India and England in the game and England was not in the race at all.
England had to face slightly tougher conditions in the game as they had to bat first when the ball was moving around a little bit early on and the early movement resulted in a flurry of wickets from which the hosts never recovered.
Jos Buttler had no hesitation in acknowledging India’s domination
There were a couple of cameos that somehow dragged England over 100, but it was never going to be enough against a strong Indian batting lineup with overhead conditions improving as well. However, what was most shocking for the England fans was the fact that England couldn’t get even one wicket when India batted.
Even when England was bowling, the ball was doing a fair bit, both in the air and off the pitch and the pitch actually had a fair bit of pace and bounce too, but apart from odd occasions where Indian batsmen struggled, they were in cruise control for majority parts of the chase.
Jos Buttler acknowledged the fact at the end of the game that the Indian bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah, were just outstanding and the gulf between the two teams in this game was just too big.
