"India certainly outplayed us" - Jos Buttler's honest admission after crushing loss to India in T20 World Cup semi-final

The Jos Buttler-led England National Cricket Team and Rohit Sharma-led India National Cricket Team locked horns with each other in the second semi-final of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana on Thursday, June 27.

Jos Buttler turned lucky and won the toss in the high-voltage match. England decided to bowl first and they were off to a good start. Despite removing Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant early, the Three Lions came under pressure as Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav batted exceptionally well. In the end, England allowed India to score 171 for 7. Chris Jordan shined with 3 wickets while Reece Topley, Jofra Archer, Sam Curran, and Adil Rashid bagged one wicket each.

When it came to run-chase, England were absolutely poor with the bat. The openers weren't able to provide the side with a flying start and the middle order wasn't able to survive against the strong Indian bowling unit. The Three Lions were bowled out for 103 and lost the match by 68 runs.

Speaking after the match, Jos Buttler lauded India for playing great cricket throughout the 20 overs and said that the Men In Blue outplayed them. He was also asked by Michael Atherton to reveal the reason behind England opting to bowl first, which many felt was a wrong decision. He elaborated:

"India certainly outplayed us. We let them get 20-25 runs too many. It was a challenging surface, they played well on. They fully deserved this win. Very different conditions (than 2022), credit to India. They played a very good game of cricket. With the rain around, didn't expect the conditions to change too much. Don't think it really did. 

"They outbowled us. They had an above-par score. Don't think toss was necessarily the difference between the teams. They've got some fantastic spinners. In hindsight, should have bowled Moeen in that innings with the way spin was bowling. We are really proud of everyone's effort. We stuck together, came up short when it mattered the most."

How Jos Buttler's England Reached The Semi-final Of ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024

England National Cricket Team were placed in Group B of the competition along with Australia National Cricket Team, Namibia National Cricket Team, Scotland National Cricket Team, and Oman National Cricket Team. 

They started off their journey with a poor performance against Scotland, but a washout in the match meant that they avoided facing any kind of upset. Next, they faced Australia and suffered a 36-run hammering at the hands of the Ashes rivals. The loss to the Aussies put them in a spot of bother and the qualification for Super 8s wasn't completely in their hands.

They needed to absolutely hammer Oman and Namibia in their next two matches and hope that the Aussies crushed Scotland so that they can finish at the No.2 despite having the same number of points as Scotland because of the Net Run Rate. 

The English team thumped Oman by 8 wickets with 101 balls remaining and then they also hammered Namibia by 41 runs to make their Net Run Rate strong. Aussies also helped their Ashes rivals by beating Scotland and England sealed a Super 8 spot.

England began their Super 8 journey by beating the favorites West Indies comprehensively by 8 wickets to make a statement. However, they were humbled in their next match as South Africa beat them by 7 runs. After the defeat, England once again bounced back strong to crush USA by 10 wickets with 62 balls remaining to seal a spot in the semi-final. Overall, England managed to beat just one Test-playing nation - West Indies - en route to the semifinal.