England’s skipper Jos Buttler, said that Quintin de Kock’s batting made the difference in their game with South Africa. In a tight ending, South Africa beat England by 7 runs in the Super 8s game at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia. De Kock got the Player of the Match award for his fast score of 65 runs in 38 balls. It was a close win for South Africa, but they still haven’t lost a game in the T20 World Cup 2024.
England was able to limit South Africa to 163 runs because, except for de Kock and David Miller, none of the other batters scored much. De Kock had a smooth innings on a difficult pitch where most players found it hard to score quickly. The pitch was tricky, but De Kock took advantage of the early powerplay by attacking the England bowlers. He scored 20 runs in one over against Jofra Archer, which was Archer’s first over.
Buttler acknowledged that the England team couldn’t keep up with De Kock’s fast and powerful innings, which was the main reason the two teams were different.
“Yes, that’s exactly it. I believe De Kock’s performance at the beginning really put us in a tough spot. He hit some amazing shots, and we just couldn’t match his level,” Buttler said to the reporters during the post-game interview.
The leader of the England team believed that the bowlers performed very well in limiting the opposing batters to a fair score.
“Yes, we thought the pitch was a bit slower than everyone thought it would be. So, I believe 160 was a fair score. I think our bowling was really good in the last 10-15 overs, which helped us keep their score down,” Buttler said.
Even though Harry Brook scored 53 runs, England didn’t reach the target and was 7 runs short, causing them to lose the important game.
