T20 World Cup: Buttler lauds match-winner Stokes

The England captain also praised his entire bowling unit, especially Curran: “He is still young and can only get better and better.”

England’s captain Jos Buttler, left, pats teammate Ben Stokes after their win against Pakistan in the final of the T20 World Cup cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. | Photo Credit: MARK BAKER

Jos Buttler strode in with the T20 World Cup medallion around his neck and the trophy was kept at an arm’s length from him on the table. The England skipper looked relaxed, happy and had a glint in his eyes. And just as he began to address the media following the five-wicket triumph over Pakistan in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here on Sunday night, from the sidelines Sam Curran yelled a “woohoo” while Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid laughed.

Buttler gave a sideways glance at his fellow heroes and then spoke about how special this triumph was and how it also validated the brand of cricket England has started playing after 2015. “It feels special to be here, to win the World Cup,” he said and then lauded Ben Stokes: “He is a match-winner, he can take any burden on his shoulders and he has been in the scenarios before and time and again he knows what to do. This wasn’t his most fluent innings but he stayed till the end and won the game.”

The England captain also praised his entire bowling unit, especially Curran: “He is still young and can only get better and better.” Later he admitted that it wasn’t easy facing the Pakistani fast bowlers. Minutes later, Curran said about how the triumph is “yet to sink in” and stressed that he would take a “World Cup any day over wickets.” Meanwhile, Rashid added: “Some days you try for wickets and get smashed, some days you don’t bowl that well and still get wickets. Today was a good day.”

Before the England quartet fulfilled their varied media-commitments, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said that his team fell short by “20 runs.” He then said: “It is disappointing to lose this final. We should have scored more but our bowlers tried hard. It also didn’t help that Shaheen Afridi got injured and could not finish his quota of overs. We did well to get here but somehow we couldn’t get any momentum.”