‘The Heat Was More Than We Bargained For’ – Buttler And Mott Concede Bowling First Was The Wrong Decision

England slumped to their biggest ever defeat in men’s ODIs after electing to bowl first and conceding 399 runs against South Africa at the Wankhede. It was a decision which both their captain and head coach admitted as “potentially” wrong after the game.

As the players left the pitch after South Africa reached their huge total, everyone looked very uncomfortable in the heat. David Willey suffered a cramp at the end of his bowling innings, and the fielders also appeared to be in considerable pain. Heinrich Claassen also had to struggle with the heat while batting and was unable to enter the field in pursuit.

After the game, when asked by Michael Atherton whether he should have taken the lead, Butler admitted it was a mistake. “Maybe so,” he answered. “I think you always look back and think about your decisions, and obviously we had incredibly difficult conditions here with the heat and I thought you could see that with the players on the field. Everybody did a great job and I still think if we had gotten off to a good start with 340 or 350 points it would have been a really good comeback. But yeah, maybe I should have fought the heat first. ”

Mr Butler also said the conditions were “as harsh as he has been through.” “Well, it’s definitely tough,” he said. “I think the humidity and, you know, the cramps and all the other challenges that come with it were tough.”

England white-ball head coach Matthew Mott also said, in hindsight, the decision at the toss should have been different. “It was a hard night for us,” he said. “I think we came in with really good intentions in this game. I thought it was a fantastic cricket wicket. We looked at the ground stats and it said it was a good chasing ground, on reflection the heat was perhaps more than we bargained for. It certainly looked like a war there at times. ”

Later in the interview, Mott also explained England’s selection options ahead of the match. “We definitely look back and think about it for a long time,” he said. “It was definitely the blueprint to have players like Livingstone and Alli at seven years old who have a big impact on the game, but I don’t think it made a difference for either team today. I thought they were better than us.”

Following the defeat, England currently sit second from bottom in the group standings, level on points with Afghanistan, but 0.002 behind on net run rate. Her next match will be against Sri Lanka on Thursday 26th October.

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