Jos Buttler, the captain of England, was all praise for India’s quartet of spinners after outbowling them on Thursday in the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final in Guyana. India proved to be superior as they defeated England by 68 runs to go to the T20I championship match.

England, chasing 172, were knocked out for 103 in 16.4 overs by Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, who shared six wickets between them.

“India definitely outclassed us,” Buttler said after the game. “We gave them much too many runs—20–25. It was a difficult field that they performed well in. They deserved to win so much.

When India and England faced off in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final, the latter easily defeated the former team by 10 wickets.

This time, however, Jofra Archer (21 off 15) saved England’s blushes as they collapsed at the batting end and seemed like they may be bowled for less than 100 runs on a sluggish and low pitch.

Buttler said, “Very different conditions (than in 2022), credit to India.” “They had an excellent cricket match.

After winning the toss, Buttler chose to bowl first in the hopes that England would benefit from the rain.

“They scored higher than expected. “Don’t assume that the toss determined the outcome between the teams,” he said.

The three Indian spinners, Kuldeep, Axar, and Ravindra Jadeja, combined to bowl 11 overs and concede only 58 runs while claiming six wickets.

It’s interesting to note that Buttler did not utilize offspinner Moeen Ali, instead using Adil Rashid (1/25) and part-timer Liam Livingstone (0/24).

Afterwards, Buttler regretted not employing Moeen because of how successful the spinners ended up being.

“There are several excellent spinners in India. With the manner in which the spinners were bowling, in retrospect, I should have bowled Moeen. We are really pleased with everyone’s work. When it counted most, we pulled together, yet we fell short,” he said.

South Africa will now play India in the championship match on Saturday.

South Africa will now play India in the championship match on Saturday.