Skipper Jos Buttler praised the character of his England facet as they breathed new life into their Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday, nevertheless it was curtains for Afghanistan.
Buttler performed a key position with the bat in a vital 20-run win over New Zealand on the Gabba, which propelled England into the highest two of Group 1 with one spherical of matches left.
The Black Caps, final 12 months’s crushed finalists, nonetheless prime the group however they, England and Australia are all now on 5 factors.
Hosts and holders Australia are third and in actual hazard due to their vastly inferior web run fee. Solely the highest two sides undergo to the semi-finals.
New Zealand play Eire and Australia face already eradicated Afghanistan on Friday because the combat for the final 4 goes all the way down to the wire.
England, who together with the hosts had been the pre-tournament favourites, conflict with Asian champions Sri Lanka the subsequent day.
Buttler, who smashed 73 off 47 balls to steer England to 179-6 in Brisbane, mentioned their medical efficiency made up for a shock defeat earlier within the Tremendous 12 stage to Eire.
“Really proud of the guys tonight, to come out with freedom and express ourselves with our talent, I was really proud of the character we showed,” mentioned the captain.
Buttler, who received the toss and selected to bat towards a facet who may have sealed a spot within the final 4 with victory, added: “We’re a very harmful workforce, we’ve received match-winners all through.
“Having not played our best (until now), we were desperate to show that today.” Buttler mentioned it was to England’s benefit that they play the day after Australia within the combat for a semi-final spot.
“There’s a bit of a benefit playing that last game to know exactly what’s required of us. We’re going to expect a really tough game against Sri Lanka. “But we’ll go to Sydney full of confidence,” Buttler added.
Glenn Phillips led the Black Caps fightback of their reply, however as soon as he fell for 62, the New Zealand problem dissolved.
The Kiwis had been left to rue two massive dropped possibilities when hazard man Buttler was on the crease.
“I guess they never help, he’s a very, very good player,” mentioned all-rounder Mitch Santner of the failed makes an attempt to get Buttler out.
“We knew the chase was going to be a challenge but I think we put ourselves in a pretty good position to get there, we just fell a bit short.”
‘All guns blazing’
Within the first recreation of the day in Brisbane, Dhananjaya de Silva scored an unbeaten 66 as Sri Lanka saved their slim World Cup hopes alive with a six-wicket win over Afghanistan.
Sri Lanka are fourth within the desk, some extent behind the highest three. They might want to beat England and hope different outcomes go their means.
Assistant coach Naveed Nawaz mentioned it will be “all guns blazing” for his facet.
“I think we’ll have to go in a very positive mindset, thinking whatever the chance that we have to get in there, explore it,” he mentioned.
“And whatever this risk that we have to take to get into the semis, we’ve got to take it.” Afghanistan are backside of the group and can’t progress into the knockout levels.
This was their second defeat, with two different matches washed out by the rain.
“I’d say there’s been some good parts and there’s been some really average parts,” mentioned Afghanistan’s coach Jonathan Trott, weighing up a marketing campaign that has simply by no means received going.
“We haven’t got things right,” the previous England batsman mentioned.
“We seem to be able to get ourselves into positions but then not utilise them and actually then kick on with the batting.” On Wednesday, in a doubleheader at Adelaide Oval, Zimbabwe face the winless Netherlands, and India play Bangladesh, each in Group 2.
With every workforce having two video games to go, South Africa prime the desk with 5 factors and are within the driving seat for a spot within the semi-finals.
India and Bangladesh are second and third respectively, each on 4 factors. Zimbabwe have three factors.
