What has set this England team apart as they have clambered from white-ball ignominy to supremacy over the past six years is an unwavering consistency of intent.
It had taken three wonderfully dominant victories for England to construct the one they sported coming into this fixture, but within 20 minutes it was looking distinctly ragged. Just a couple of scratches and off they come. The thing about auras of invincibility is that, handsome as they are when they settle upon you, they are not very hardwearing. Over the course of 20 overs he was England’s opener, their anchor and their finisher. With the wind in his sails there are few batters to match Buttler, who completed his first international Twenty20 century by lifting the final ball of the innings over square-leg for six. Forty-eight hours after his 32-ball 71 powered England to victory over Australia, England’s diamond showed another facet of his brilliance with a 67-ball century transforming an innings that for a while, as so many have in this tournament, got lost in the doldrums.
Sri Lanka were beaten by 27 runs, and with a 100 per cent record after four games a place in the semi-finals is all but secured.īuttler led the team off, his team-mates walking 10 paces behind and applauding him all the way. In a tournament where everything had gone England’s way, this time it all went against them: asked to bat first after losing the toss, labouring to work out how to pace their innings, bowling as dew drenched the outfield on a heavy, humid night in Sharjah, and then watching Tymal Mills limp off midway through his second over to shred their death bowling plans.īut they refused to throw in the towel – it was busy soaking dew off the ball – and thanks to the genius of Jos Buttler an often unpleasant evening ended in another victory. England 163-4 (J Buttler 101no, E Morgan 40 W Hasaranga 3-21) beat Sri Lanka 137 (W Hasaranga 34 Moeen Ali 2-15, A Rashid 2-19, C Jordan 2-24) by 26 runs.
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