How the Buttler-Mott partnership helped England storm the T20 World Cup final downing India

When Surya Kumar Yadav walked into the middle, Ben Stokes was bowling with four fielders on the leg side and one fielder on the cover boundary on the off-side.
The bowler kept aiming on middle and leg. Which did not allow Surya to complete his early easing-in routine – where he tries to find a boundary in the first four-five deliveries to get going. England had gotten him restless – a master-stroke Jos Buttler.
The world’s No 1 T20I batter tried to force the issue, instead of doing what he does best, which is timing the ball. He eventually top edged one – giving a lucky break. However Adil Rashid had executed the plan – to toss one outside off-stump much slower and wider, and force the shot. Once again, SKY, instead of trying to time the ball and find the gap, had tried to loft it, which caused his downfall.

In his own words… 🗣
The Matches That Made Me 🏏#T20WorldCup | @JosButtler pic.twitter.com/jCU9dzbKXp
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 11, 2022
The extent of planning and research in trying to cramp the batter showed the kind of captain Jos Buttler was and how this team was run.
Before the crucial semifinal game, two of their starters Dawid Malan and Mark Wood were declared unavailable through injury. One may be cheeky and say they didn’t need Malan. Nonetheless, the left-hander, 35, has been one of the go-to guys in terms of leadership of the side with a lot of experience under his belt.
Mark Wood was a miss though. The 32-year-old has been bowling thunderbolts this year since recovering from an injury.

Despite missing both, Jos Buttler’s men thumped India 10 wickets. It was a game which looked like England were playing 2022 version of T20 cricket and India was playing the 2015 model.
A lot of credit would go to Eoin Morgan in English cricket books for what he did to transform the one-day side. Taking the reins from someone like him, Jos Buttler has had his ups and downs initially. But now the team has become Buttler’s team and his mark is visible.
Matthew Mott and Jos Buttler’s partnership
Trevor Bayliss is arguably one of the best coaches of the modern era. The Australian alongside Eoin Morgan delivered the first ICC 50-over World Cup for England. The duo had also helped them reach the T20 WC final in 2016 which the team lost narrowly.

Behind the scenes on a very special night at the Adelaide Oval! 🎥#T20WorldCup | #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/cBpLqdmwCz
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 11, 2022
Later, Chris Silverwood did come in and took on the reins as coach. However, the team had the Bayliss-Morgan philosophy embedded into it completely that time.
However, the time Matthew Mott came in, Morgan had retired and hence Mott’s first challenge was to have his own imprint. The team at the beginning of the Mott-Buttler campaign came under immense scrutiny. England lost to India 2-1 in two T20I bilateral series to both India and South Africa at home.
The red ball cricket on the other hand was booming at the time. It was the first time since 2015 that England’s white-ball side (with haunting memories of Adelaide) was under pressure.
“I think there’s more time than you think, but what needs to happen in the short term is to be really honest about where the group’s at,” Mott said speaking to Sky Sports.

Preparing for our #T20WorldCup semi-final at the Adelaide Oval! 🏟🏏💥 pic.twitter.com/8XqRFsmqED
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 8, 2022
“A lot of people reflect back on the past about how great a team this is. This is a very different unit at the moment. We need to acknowledge that and make sure we live in the present and work on what we can get better at.” he added.
The former Australian women’s coach kept backing Jos Buttler and asked for some patience at the time.
The patience shown certainly bore fruit at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday against India.
Let’s get Hales in
Alex Hales had been ignored English cricket for a long time due to issues outside the field. The opener despite setting the franchise scene on fire in various leagues across the globe was constantly ignored ECB.
Nonetheless, Jason Roy scored 206 runs this year at an average of 18.73 and a strike rate of 104. With the team losing in all the white ball bilaterals at home and the T20 World cup soon approaching, it became inevitable to replace Roy.

“This is one of the best days of my career for sure.” 🙌#T20WorldCup | @AlexHales1 pic.twitter.com/NrfQkLKaxH
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 10, 2022
England’s tour to Pakan in September is where Alex Hales was brought into the squad.
The 33-year-old was the top-scorer in the Australian Big Bash League for Sydney Thunder in the 2020-21 season and given the World Cup was in Australia it was a masterstroke Mott and Buttler to give Hales the taste of international cricket again just before the World Cup.
Hales had a rough time early on. He did enough to keep his place in the bilateral series against Pakan but failed in the initial few games in the World Cup. The opener stuck form against New Zealand in the group game at the Gabba. He made 52 (40) followed a 47 (30) at the SCG against Sri Lanka and a destructive 86 (47) to thrash India out of the tournament and take England to the final. The batter has scored 211 runs at an average of 52 and a strike rate of 148 in the tournament. He was awarded the Player Of the Match against India.
Sam Curran 2.0
Sam Curran was a pleasant surprise for the English management and supporters. England’s death bowling in the absence of Jofra Archer has been under pressure and letting the team down in big tournaments in pressure situations many times before.
In the 2016 final, Ben Stokes conceded four sixes in a row of the last four balls of the innings to hand the game over to West Indies. In the semifinal against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi England managed to give away 60 runs in the last four overs. New Zealand chasing 167 had been 107-3 after 15 overs and Morgan’s men conceded the score with an over to spare.
So Sam Curran had been one of the revelations for England from the Pakan series. He became England’s go-to bowler at the death, conceding a mere 34 runs from 41 deliveries in the last-four-over stage at this World Cup, before the India game.

A winning start to our World Cup campaign in Perth! 💪🏏🌏🏆#T20WorldCup | #England pic.twitter.com/hXXHU99vuM
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 23, 2022
L Balaji who worked with Curran at CSK recalls his liking for developing variations. “I remember he wanted to master the slower bouncer for example. He figured with the dimensions of the ground – he was always studying them and you can see it reflected in his bowling at different grounds – a slow bouncer was always a good weapon. How hard he worked at that for hours. He also likes his quicker surprise bouncer and always tests out the batsmen,” Balaji told Express ahead of the semifinals.
“One definite area of improvement was how well he uses the crease these days. If there is no swing on offer, he will right away go around the stumps. His angles of release, both over and round, are always varying; small tweaks but effective.”
“With his slightly round-armish action, the wide outside-off yorker was always going to be a difficult ball to master. But he worked so hard at it. Not a surprise that all these little changes – the angles, the different deliveries are all coming on perfectly now,” he added.
“I’ve always been in and out of the side, so when you play three or four [matches] in a row, you get that confidence,” said Sam Curran in a World Cup press conference.
Backing the match-winners
Ben Stokes’ T20I record is mediocre, unlike his Tests and ODI record. He averages 19 from 42 T20Is. With the array of options available in players like Ben Duckett, and Phil Salt and a floater like David Wiley on the side, it was tempting to look the other way.
However, Jos and Mott stuck to their match-winner. Anyone who doubts the ability of Stokes to win the game out of nowhere must be living under a rock whilst he smashed the Aussies in Headingly, and in the horic World Cup final in 2019 against the Black Caps.

He hasn’t been at his vintage best but he has been used as a bowler Buttler to open the bowling. But during the left hander’s innings of 42*(36) when England lost their way in chasing a mediocre 142 against Sri Lanka, the calmness and experience of the man showed.
Adil Rashid was declared the Man of The Match in that game against Sri Lanka. Another match-winner who struggled before the World Cup.
Making a comeback against Pakan in Pakan, the leg-spinner had a tough old time of it. But coming into the World Cup semifinal against a country that boasts of their spin playing ability he delivered a brilliant 1-20 (4). The wicket he picked of Surya Kumar Yadav was the game-changer.
“He may not have picked up the wickets that he usually does and certainly, from the outside, some people have said he wasn’t bowling as well. But from within the group, if you come and face him in the nets, he’s been bowling well and tonight he was exceptional.” Jos Buttler said in the post-match press conference. Once again Jos Buttler, in his own calm and fair way, saw beyond numbers and superficial perceptions to pick his personnel.