England’s wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler has asserted that they didn’t want to give an easy win for India and by taking the third Test into day five, the hosts have made the visitors work hard for the victory. Buttler scored 103 and put on a partnership of 169 runs with Ben Stokes but Jasprit Bumrah took 5-85 to reduce England to 311-9 in pursuit of chasing an impossible target of 521 runs.
Talking about the fighting knock on Day 4, Buttler said, “It was very important for us to turn up today and show a lot of character and fight and not give it to India easily – make them work hard. We did that really well throughout the day – even the two guys there at the end, making sure we do come back tomorrow. It showed that, no matter what it is, we’re not going to roll over,” Buttler said.
England team was reduced to 62 for four at one stage before the lunch on Day 4 but the partnership of Buttler and Stokes which even continued after the tea break frustrated the Indian bowlers.
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Talking about the same, Buttler said, “Having batted for a long time and feeling pretty good in the middle. We knew the (second) new ball would be a big phase. It has been a long time coming, and a few months ago it was a million miles away. It’s a huge moment for me. Personally, I’m delighted, a little bit lost for words. Definitely, to prove you can do it, I think that’s a huge part of the feeling of it.”
He further added, “I was never sure if I’d ever play Test cricket again. All those thoughts go through your head while you’re out there as well when you start to get close. I never thought this would happen, so I had to try and make sure it did. Definitely, there were times when I thought that race was run.”
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After the Tea Break, it was Bumrah, who used the second new ball really well, and broke the crucial partnership and exploited the English lower order and now India is on the verge of making the scoreline of the series 2-1.
Describing his spell, Buttler said, “In the white-ball formats and the IPL, he’s obviously a fantastic performer – and now he’s showing that in Test matches too. He’s obviously got quite a unique action, generates good pace with it, and crates a different angle to what you’d usually face. So he’s definitely a guy who poses some different questions to the norm. He draws you into playing a lot of balls, with his angle and where he delivers it from, and that was just one that came back – and I got it wrong.”
