Former England batter Mark Butcher has criticised some of the decisions made by England in the closing stages of their defeat to West Indies in the opening game of their three-match ODI series in the Caribbean.
England made significant changes to their squad for the West Indies series, retaining just six players from their World Cup squad, and were eliminated from the tournament after losing six of their seven matches.
All six of these players featured in the series opener, when West Indies captain Shai Hope was unbeaten from number four to help the hosts cross the goal line. England lost by four wickets.
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The score was a tough battle for England as Harry Brooks’ 71 and 66 runs for the eighth wicket between Sam Curran and Brydon Kearse took Jos Buttler’s side to 325 in 50 overs. Even on the second layer pitch, where the momentum was unstable, he achieved better than average results. England conceded a goal with the new ball. Curran was particularly hurt as he conceded 30 runs in a four-over new ball game.
England recovered well in the middle overs, with spin twin Liam Livingstone and Rehan Ahmed controlling the flow of runs, and they had 3 wins and 90 losses in the 20 overs they bowled together. West Indies lost his fifth wicket to Sharfan Rutherford, needing his 113 wickets from his last 68 deliveries, and achieved the target with his seven balls remaining.
Butcher criticized England’s response in the final stages of the game, highlighting certain positions on the field. “Tactically speaking, some of the pitches weren’t particularly good,” Butcher explained on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. “They had Sam Curran bowling over the wicket and they had the third man bowling over them with nobody around. They kept mowing him down there. To be honest, the bowler and the captain In both cases, there was some confusion in the field in terms of decision-making.”
“Big respect to Romario Shepherd [48/28]. And of course, Hope continued to do what he had always done, which was to remain completely calm until the end. He had a chance to end the match with a masterpiece with Six Currans. Game], Death Stick to beat with more balls.
“His innings was great. And as you know, three-quarters of the game was England. It looked like they were going to win, but as soon as there was a little bit of pressure on him, he gave up a little bit. , It was a shame.”
Butcher also highlighted Will Jacks’ decision not to use off-spin on a surface useful for slow bowlers, saying: “It was very obvious and the right thing to do, except in the unknown.” ” he said. “.”
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“I don’t know if Jacks was unable to bowl due to injury or something, but England were always happy to field more than five bowlers.” The last time they played with just five and they didn’t. I can’t remember when it was. No need to go elsewhere for a few overs. You know, they had the absolute bonus of Liam Livingstone going through all 10 balls and bowling really well. At times, the ball was spinning a lot for Rehan Ahmed.
“Sam Curran struggled with the brand new ball he was given, which suited him much better, or would have preferred to come off the bench after the first power play, and it was It wasn’t a good result.” So it seemed completely obvious, you know, if Hetmyer was there as a left-hander, he could have bowled the Jax ball in three or four overs. Maybe the ball spun while it was still stuck in the middle and I skipped a few because I didn’t quite understand how to get it down to 325. That way you’ll have less exposure on the back end than having to throw at the end of everything. From Kaas and Karan.
“And I decided not to do that – and again, I haven’t heard anything about whether Jax had any injuries or other issues that would prevent him from bowling – but… It seemed so obvious.” It was the right thing to do. .
Y0u can listen to the full conversation with Mark Butcher on the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel.
