England skipper Jos Buttler admitted they were outplayed in the three-match ODI series against India after suffering a 0-3 clean sweep. The visitors suffered a huge loss of 142 runs in the third and final ODI of the series at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
India posted a par score of 356 runs on the board after Buttler decided to bowl first. Shubman Gill scored his seventh ODI century, smashing 112 runs off 102 balls with the help of 14 fours and three sixes whereas Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer struck fine fifties.
On the other hand, England was skittled out for a paltry score of 214 runs in 34.2 overs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. None of the tourists’ batters could even go past the 40-run mark as they once again could not convert their starts.
Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, and Hardik Pandya bagged two wickets apiece for India while defending 357.
Buttler said it was a similar story with the bat as they could not come up with a collective effort and it once again led to their downfall.
Jos Buttler said in the post-match presentation, “It went in similar fashion to the whole tour (talking about the batting). We were outplayed by a fantastic team. Our approach (with bat) is a right one, just that we haven’t executed well. They put a great score on the board. Shubman played a great innings. We got off to a great start again but familiar story again for us. Need to find a way to bat longer. We were up against a really good side that keeps challenging.”
England will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against arch-rivals Australia at Lahore on 22nd February.
