Buttler Smashes Century As England Demolish India To Complete 4-0 T20I Series Whitewash
London : Jos Buttler's quickfire hundred and Harry Brook's blazing knock of 95 saw England hand India another thrashing to complete a 4-0 series whitewash.
Jos Buttler's sensational 131 off 64 balls led England's batting charge as they posted a massive 257/3 in their 20 overs.
Harry Brook contributed an explosive 95 not out from just 45 deliveries.
Buttler and Brook established a new T20I record with a 233-run second-wicket partnership.
India finished on 201/8 in their 20 overs with fifties from Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma.
Jos Buttler rolled back the years with a blistering century, while skipper Harry Brook hammered a quickfire 95 as England annihilated an out-of-sorts India by 56 runs in the fifth and final T20 International to complete a historic 4-0 series whitewash, in Southampton, on Saturday.
Buttler dominated as hammered a 64-ball-131 and captain Brook was equally brutal, smashing 95 from 45 balls to power England to a virtually insurmountable 257/3.
Buttler and Brook put on a match-winning stand of 233 runs from 102 balls for the second wicket -- a record partnership for any wicket in the history of T20 Internationals.
The chase was out of question as India, despite their most impressive batting show on this tour of UK, managed 201 for 8 in the end.
Ishan Kishan (56 off 35) and the universally panned Tilak Varma (53 off 25 balls) scored some pressure free runs which counted for little, except beefing their personal statistics.
The win also effectively ended India's 1601 days of uninterrupted pole position in the ICC T20I team rankings.
This was also the sixth match out of seven played that India lost under new captain Shreyas Iyer which has resulted in BCCI calling for a review of this shambolic show.
Whatever good things were achieved under previous head coach Rahul Dravid have been completely undone by Gautam Gambhir in trying to put his own stamp in the current set-up.
Currently, it is a dressing room which is divided with lack of trust among the players due to constant chopping and changing which brews insecurity.
While the attack at all costs philosophy worked well on Indian featherbeds with short boundaries, India's IPL stars learnt the hard way that one-size-fits-all strategy doesn't always work.
If Brook raced off the blocks to complete his half-century off just 19 balls, veteran Buttler upped the ante after getting to his fifty which his younger teammate missed by five runs.
Buttler's first 50 came off 34 balls and the next fifty came off just 17 more deliveries as he switched gears with effortless ease.
With series already in the bag, the duo put the Indian attack to the sword with some of the cleanest hitting that one would have witnessed at the Rose Bowl where Shreyas Iyer won his fifth toss and opted to field.
While Prasidh Krishna removed the dangerous Phil Salt early, caught at deep fine leg boundary, things went downhill for the visitors thereon.
Between Buttler and Brook, they hit as many as 16 sixes -- eight each. The pull by the former skipper while taking the top hand off the bat handle off Prasidh over fine leg was certainly the stand out shot off the innings. He had earlier thumped the pacer over long-on for a six. He would stand and deliver, bringing the Indian attack on its haunches.
On the other hand, Brook's footwork against Axar Patel (0/63 in 4 overs) was pure class as he danced down the track to loft the bowler for a couple of sixes in the 10th over which yielded 25 runs. The wheels of Indian attack came off after the end of that over. Prince Yadav also got a rare pasting going for 60 in his four overs.
When it came to pacers, Brook held his shape for the fuller ones and for the slightly back of length stuff, he would make room shuffling towards the leg-stump to cart the deliveries over extra cover and long off.
With Harshit Rana out of the rest of the tour (including ODIs) with a grade 1 hamstring tear, the team management was compelled to field Suryansh Shedge (0/39 in 3 overs), who is far from being a finished product who could be unleashed in international cricket. Iyer gave him a third over, in which Shedge completely lost his length to give away 24 runs.
In the next over, a nervous Prince was given a proper hiding with 21 runs coming off it. After a certain point, skipper Iyer was seen standing near the boundary, resigned and looking a bit lost.
