‘Conditions changed’: England captain Jos Buttler, Ben Duckett blame Lahore dew after Australia’s record-breaking Champions Trophy chase | Cricket News

Australia’s record-breaking run-chase to kick-start their Champions Trophy campaign at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore has somewhat flattened England as they suffered a fourth successive ODI defeat on Saturday since the recent India tour earlier this month.
Motoring on wicket-keeper Josh Inglis’ blering century, Australia romped past a 352-run target to record the highest chase in Champions Trophy hory, despite entering the tournament with a depleted squad. Inglis’ maiden ODI hundred had him finish on 120 not out off 86 balls with Australia cleaning up the chase with 15 balls to spare.
With captain Steve Smith opting to field first, England put on a comprehensive batting display led opener Ben Duckett’s 143-ball 165, the highest individual score in the tournament. However, both Duckett and England skipper Jos Buttler rued the dewy conditions that hampered their defense.
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“A fantastic game, both sides played well, credit to Australia,” Buttler said. “It was a fantastic innings from Inglis. 350 is a pretty good score, but it was wet and the dew was a worry.”
“I probably would have batted first. It’s 50/50 whether the dew comes in or not, we’ll look to make good use of the surface,” he said after the toss.
“We’re not trying to hide anything, we’re confident in the set-up. The guys seem in a good place and anytime you play Australia it’s a big event.”
Duckett also highlighted the wet conditions as a pivotal factor in deciding the game.Story continues below this ad
“First of all, when a side chases down 350 you’ve got to give them credit. I think they played really well in those middle overs,” Duckett told Sky Sports. To be honest it felt like we were one, two wickets away from potentially winning pretty easily. I couldn’t always, while we were fielding, see the lines we were bowling, but it felt like we cut a little bit too much on that wicket.
“The one thing I spoke about was keeping the stumps in play. You only have to walk across here to see it. It did get easier. The back end of our innings it felt impossible to stand there and try and hit sixes. When Jos and Livvy (Liam Livingstone) and those guys came in. The conditions obviously changed,” Duckett added.