England thumped Australia by 8 wickets to win their third match of T20 World Cup 2021.
Australian skipper Aaron Finch lavished rich praise on England’s wicketkeeper batter Jos Buttler for his heroics in an ICC T20 World Cup 2021 clash against them.
England is inching closer to a place in the semi-final as the Eoin Morgan-led side, after crushing West Indies and Bangladesh, thumped Australia by 8 wickets to clinch their third consecutive win of the ongoing tournament.
Batting first, Australia was in deep trouble as they lost 3 wickets in the power play. The Aaron Finch-led side never managed to come back from that. Skipper Aaron Finch was the lone warrior for his side and on account of his 44 runs Australia managed to post a total of 125 runs on the board.
Defending the target, the Aaron Finch-led side had no answers to the onslaught by Jos Buttler as he took Australian bowlers to cleaners and smashed half-century in just 26 balls, the fastest of the tournament so far. He along with Jason Roy scored 66 runs for the opening partnership to put Australia under immense pressure.
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While Roy departed soon after the powerplay, Buttler carried on and added the finishing touches alongside Jonny Bairstow to seal the game with 8.2 overs to spare.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Australian skipper Aaron Finch said that after early blows they did well to hang in and they thought that the total they posted was defendable.
"After losing a few wickets in the powerplay, we had to hang in there and get to a total we thought would be defendable. They bowled well and put us on the back foot early," Aaron Finch said at the post-match presentation.
Finch admitted that to defend the low total, a team needs to bowl the opposition out. He praised Jos Buttler, saying that the wicketkeeper batter played ‘hell of an innings’ to put pressure on them.
"You had to bowl them out with that kind of total, but Jos Buttler played a hell of an innings and put the pressure on us and it's just one of those nights where we got off to a poor start and it kept compounding, unfortunately. We've got a couple of days to recharge now, give the guys some much-needed rest and take on Bangladesh next," he said.
Australia will next take on Bangladesh on 4th November while England will lock horns against the same opponents on 1st November.
(ANI inputs)