The ongoing tour of India by England has become the saga of missed opportunities, with Jos Buttler’s team failing on yet another occasion to finish off in a winning way after having established a faint edge over the adversaries with bat and ball in Thursday’s first One Day International at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Nagpur.
They actually suffered a similar scenario of being unable to seize the upper hand in the preceding series of T20I matches, again concluding the series 4-1 after winning the third match only to minimize the margin a little. A decent start in Thursday’s first ODI saw England post a 70-odd run without loss before creating chaos for themselves by losing wickets in a cluster and were all out for 248.
They seemed to have another opportunity to take control of the game after they had reduced India to 19/2, getting out Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal cheaply.
This was when Shubman Gill (87) and Shreyas Iyer (59) had shared 94 runs in putting India back in charge. Gill and Axer Patel took the team forward toward victory.
England captain Jos Butler expressed disappointment as his team failed to capitalize yet against the opportunities created by them twice.
“Disappointed not to take the game home. Took a fantastic start during the power-play. Despite the openers giving a great start but losing four wickets, it was frustrating. Extra 40-50 runs would have made all the difference,” Buttler uttered during the presentation ceremony after the match.
England collapsed after a decent start from Phil Salt, who made 43, and Ben Duckett, who scored 32. “That is not how we want to play. We want to put the pressure on the opposition and continue the momentum,” said Buttler.
Buttler agrees that England was beginning to look a little predictable regarding their fast bowling strategies in this series.
“Look, they started well, they were 20 for 2, and that’s when the game is on balance. If we could take a wicket there, but Gill and Iyer had a good partnership.
“We can do better, that should be played for more extended parts; we have shown at stages we are doing the right things.
Whenever we have momentum, we need to try and extend it further,” Buttler stated.
The England captain must be hoping the odds tilt in his side’s favor in the next ODI at Cuttack which will be exciting for the series.
