Matt Taylor takes four as Patel, McKerr, Steel impress in losing cause for Surrey

ECB Reporters Network30-Jul-2024Cameron Bancroft’s 100 from 109 balls was backed up by an excellent bowling effort as Gloucestershire opened their Metro Bank One-Day Cup account with a convincing 37-run victory against Surrey at the Kia Oval.A defiant 87 from 96 balls by Ryan Patel, and 50 off 45 from Josh Blake, could not prevent Surrey from reaching only 264 in reply to Gloucestershire’s 301 all out, in which Miles Hammond had also made 51 and skipper Jack Taylor an explosive 44 with five sixes.Fast bowler Conor McKerr impressed for Surrey with List A best figures of four for 32, while Cameron Steel finished with four for 61, but overall Gloucestershire’s attack was more consistent with pacemen Matt Taylor and Ajeet Singh Dale both outstanding.Both teams were winless after their first two games, but it is Surrey who remain marooned at the bottom of the Group B table. For Gloucestershire, left-armer Taylor took four for 44 and Singh Dale two for 49.Blake and McKerr, who made 37 from 35 balls, hit out bravely in a seventh-wicket stand of 85 in 12 overs after Patel and Ben Foakes had rallied Surrey from 51 for three with a partnership worth 89.Taylor, who had removed both Dom Sibley, leg-before for nought, and Ben Geddes (14) in a superb five-over new ball burst of two for 10, later produced a sharp lifter that McKerr could only fend off to keeper James Bracey.Singh Dale had earlier returned for a second spell to have Foakes caught at deep square leg for 34 and then opener Patel – who had struck three sixes and seven fours – held by Bracey, thick edging as he tried to force away a short rising delivery to leave Surrey 153 for six.Rory Burns had fallen earlier for just six, leg-before to Ollie Price’s off spin, and after Price and left-arm spinner Tom Smith had combined effectively in mid-innings to peg back Surrey’s scoring rate it was another slow left-armer, Graeme van Buuren, who had Steel caught behind for a duck in between the Foakes and Patel dismissals.That left Blake and McKerr, who both hit sixes off Matt Taylor, to keep Gloucestershire waiting for a deserved victory and when Dom Goodman sprinted 20 yards towards mid off to claim a Blake skier off his own bowling it was all but over.Bancroft’s fifth List A hundred perfectly anchored Gloucestershire’s innings, while his fellow opener Hammond’s 57-ball half-century provided initial forward momentum and Jack Taylor’s 26-ball cameo gave the visitors late acceleration.Surrey, however, would still have been happy enough to limit Gloucestershire to 301 after they had reached the 40-over mark on 248 for four and with Taylor already beginning to hit out strongly in a 56-run stand with Bancroft.Steel picked up his fourth wicket by having Bancroft leg-before, sweeping, and McKerr almost immediately had Van Buuren caught at the wicket for a duck with a fine leg-cutter to peg the visitors to 260 for six.Taylor had by then square cut returning paceman Nathan Barnwell over the third man ropes for his first six, as well as slog-sweeping Yousef Majid’s left arm spin into the stands, but soon he struck James Taylor’s fast-medium for successive legside sixes before the same bowler ended his assault with the last ball of the 45th over.And suddenly, with McKerr on a hat-trick after removing Smith (3) and Goodman, from an edge behind to a diving Blake and then a mis-cued swat to mid wicket, Gloucestershire were 289 for nine.McKerr’s hat-trick ball then almost found the edge of last man Singh Dale’s bat as it whistled through to keeper Blake, but Sibley dropped Matt Taylor at long on off Steel, leaving him to finish unbeaten on 19 when Singh Dale fell to McKerr for six.Earlier, Hammond had dominated a first wicket stand of 79, after Gloucestershire had been put in, hitting two legside sixes and five fours.Majid saw Hammond chip the last ball of the 15th over straight to mid wicket but was then swept for six by Bancroft as the Australian international was joined by Price in a second wicket stand worth 74.Price was smartly stumped by Blake on 32, missing a cut when advancing to Steel, and the leg spinner had the last laugh after Bracey skied to long on after slog-sweeping him over the mid wicket ropes to go to 16.Steel’s googly bamboozled Ben Charlesworth on 12, the left-hander thin-edging to Blake, but Taylor arrived to help Bancroft push Gloucestershire’s total on to challenging proportions – and one which proved beyond Surrey.

Omarzai, who was pulled out of CPL 2024, is in line for his Test debut after being named in the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Aug-2024Afghanistan’s ace spinner Rashid Khan is not part of their preliminary 20-member squad for the one-off Test against New Zealand, which will be played in Greater Noida from September 9 to 13.Rashid last featured in a Test match for Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi in March 2021. A statement from the ACB didn’t specify the reason for Rashid’s absence from the squad that will leave for India on August 28 to undergo a one-week preparatory camp.Rashid was recently in action in the Shpageeza T20 league in Kabul as Speen Ghar Tigers’ captain. Last week, he hit 53 off 26 balls and picked up a wicket in a truncated game in the league. Prior to that, his stint with Trent Rockets in the men’s Hundred was cut short by a hamstring injury.Related

• Rashid Khan takes a break from Test cricket on medical advice

• Afghanistan sign up R Sridhar as assistant coach

• NZ captain Southee may not play all upcoming subcontinent Tests

• Afghanistan and New Zealand set to play one-off Test in September

“Twenty players have been selected for the training camp and a 15-member squad will be selected to play the only Test match against New Zealand after observing their performance and fitness,” Ahmad Shah Sulimankhel, the chief selector said.Seam-bowling allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai is in line to make his Test debut, meanwhile, after being named in the preliminary squad. Omarzai has established himself as a regular in white-ball cricket for Afghanistan but is uncapped in Test cricket, and his first-class experience is also limited: he has played just five long-format games so far. Omarzai was recently pulled out of his CPL stint with Antigua & Barbuda Falcons, with England’s Sam Billings replacing him. CPL 2024 will overlap with the Test match against New Zealand and the ODI series that follows against South Africa in the UAE, also in September.Hashmatullah Shahidi was retained as captain while Afghanistan will have a new assistant coach in R Sridhar for their upcoming series against New Zealand and South Africa. Sridhar had served as India’s fielding coach from 2014 to 2021, working as a part of Ravi Shastri’s support staff.The Test against New Zealand will be Afghanistan’s 10th overall and their third of 2024 – the most they have so far played in a calendar year.

Afghanistan preliminary squad for one-off Test against NZ

Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab.

In-form opener will face Surrey in upcoming round after injury to Scott Borthwick

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Sep-2024Emilio Gay will join Durham on loan for their County Championship clash with table-topping Surrey at the Kia Oval on Tuesday, after the club captain Scott Borthwick was ruled out for the rest of the season with an elbow injury.Gay, 24, has enjoyed a prolific season at the top of Northamptonshire’s order, scoring 919 runs at 57.43 in ten matches, including a career-best 261 against Middlesex in April.However, he was out of contract at the end of the season, and having agreed to join Durham on a two-year deal from 2025, he has now brought forward his time at the club to include their final two Championship matches, against Surrey and Kent.Alex Lees will take over as Durham’s captain for the remainder of the season.Gay’s arrival is a boost for Durham, who are currently fifth in Division One in their first season back in the top flight for eight years, and who will face a Surrey side still smarting from their shock defeat against title challengers Somerset at Taunton last week. Surrey currently lead Somerset by eight points, and have still to face Essex in their final match at Chelmsford, starting September 26.Surrey’s morale took a further dent on Saturday when Somerset also ended their hopes of a domestic double in the T20 Blast semi-final at Edgbaston.With England’s ongoing white-ball series against Australia limiting player availability, Surrey were shorn of four key players in that contest. They now face missing more personnel for the last rounds of the Championship, with Gus Atkinson already ruled out with injury, and Ollie Pope rested for the final two rounds with England due to fly out for their Test series against Pakistan in just over two weeks’ time.

Spinner is stand-out name in 15-player squad for event in Malaysia in January-February

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Oct-2024Tilly Corteen-Coleman, the 17-year-old spinner who made a strong impression in this year’s Women’s Hundred, has been named in a 15-player squad for the Women’s Under-19 World Cup, which is due to take place in Malaysia early next year.Corteen-Coleman was still 16 when she made an instant impression on her Hundred debut for Southern Brave in July, catching Australia’s Meg Lanning off her own bowling for a notable maiden wicket. Domestically, she also impressed for South East Stars, claiming 5 for 19 against Northern Diamonds in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, including four wickets in five balls, before helping her team reach the final of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.Davina Perrin is also included, having been a part of the England squad that lost to India in the inaugural Under-19 tournament in South Africa in January 2023. A captain is set to be named nearer the time.Sixteen teams will feature in the 41-match event, across 15 days of competition from January 18 to February 2, 2025, including the hosts Malaysia who will be making their maiden tournament appearance, as will Samoa.England have been drawn in Group B, alongside Ireland, Pakistan and USA, with all their group-stage matches set to take place in Johor.Chris Guest, who was last week appointed as Performance Lead for the women’s Under-19 set-up, oversaw that 2023 campaign as head coach, and looked forward to guiding another group of young players through their maiden global event.”What excites me most about working with the under-19 age group is the constant cycle of new talent and new groups coming through,” Guest said. “We’ve named a squad which features some players who have been involved at this age group before and some who haven’t.”This World Cup is a part of these players’ journey, not the end or the start and our message to them is to embrace the challenge, evolve ourselves and enjoy the ride. Naturally we want to do well but the programme is about developing these players in the future and for the long-term.”It was really exciting to see Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Hannah Baker, Seren Smale and Charis Pavely feature for the senior team in Ireland after representing the U19s in the first edition of this World Cup in 2023 and this acts as real inspiration for this group and demonstrates how important this tournament can be for a player’s development.”Guest will be joined by two assistant coaches, Dan Helesfay and Beth Morgan, the former batter who played a key role in England’s two World Cup wins in 2009, across the 50- and 20-over formats respectively. Morgan currently works as a Regional Talent Manager for Southern Vipers, while Helesfay is an assistant coach at South East Stars and Welsh FireRichard Bedbrook, Head of England Women Performance Pathways, said: “It is always an exciting time to be able to name an U19 World Cup squad and all those chosen, including the non-travelling reserve group, can be very proud of this achievement.”The quality in the group highlights the work of each of the regional teams across both their senior and Academy environments and I, plus colleagues, are indebted to them on the development work they continue to put in.”We hope each individual takes a huge amount from the experience they are about to have and uses it to continue developing themselves as a person and player.”This also goes for the staff group, a number of whom across various roles are also employees of the Regional teams and who will hopefully take huge amounts of experience and enjoyment from being a part of the programme.”Five non-travelling reserves have also been selected. The reserves won’t travel but will take a full part throughout the preparation phase and act as stand-by players should a replacement player be required:England Women U19 squad: Phoebe Brett (Central Sparks), Olivia Brinsden (Thunder), Tilly Corteen-Coleman (South East Stars), Trudy Johnson (Northern Diamonds), Katie Jones (Western Storm), Charlotte Lambert (South East Stars), Abi Norgrove (Southern Vipers), Eve O’Neill (Southern Vipers), Davina Perrin (Central Sparks), Jemima Spence (South East Stars), Charlotte Stubbs (South East Stars), Amuruthaa Surenkumar (Sunrisers), Prisha Thanawala (The Blaze), Erin Thomas (Northern Diamonds), Grace Thompson (Northern Diamonds)Non-travelling reserves: Maria Andrews (The Blaze), Sophie Beech (Central Sparks), Daisy Gibb (Southern Vipers), Poppy Tulloch (Southern Vipers), Annie Williams (The Blaze).

ESPNcricinfo has learned that the tournament is waiting to be greenlit by PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi

Danyal Rasool19-Oct-2024There is no clarity on when the 2024-25 season of the Quaid-e-Azam (QeA) Trophy will start despite Pakistan’s bumper international Test season being well underway. A schedule tentatively put out by the PCB in August had Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament beginning on October 20, but the day before that date, the fate of the tournament remains uncertain.While the dates for all domestic competitions announced by the PCB in August were tentative and subject to change, a PCB official told ESPNcricinfo as recently as last month that the QeA was set to keep to its October 20 plan. ESPNcricinfo understands that no one, even those in charge of domestic affairs at the PCB, knows when the tournament schedule will eventually be announced.ESPNcricinfo has learned that the tournament is waiting to be greenlit by PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi.The PCB declined to comment on what holds the approval back at this stage, though budgetary approval operationally comes from the chairman, and is understood to be one of the factors in the delay. Even so, the lack of information about the QeA is in stark contrast to the fanfare with which the Champions One-Day Cup, which was held in September, was marked by the board.The decision to host that one-day tournament in September, in Pakistan’s only meaningfully free window until May, was significant because it meant players wouldn’t be able to get domestic red-ball cricket under their belts ahead of England’s ongoing three-Test tour in October. Members of the national Test set-up were understood to have privately expressed frustration with the situation, though there was an acceptance that the schedule was out of their control.The QeA has never quite managed to keep to a schedule or format, but no information about its start this late into a season is unprecedented of late. In each but two of the last 15 years has the tournament started later than October 26, with the schedule usually out well before October. Each of the last two seasons saw it begin in September; the tournament last year began on September 10, and was wrapped up by October 26.The situation is even more jarring in a season where Pakistan are scheduled to play more Test matches than any other this century. They are already more than halfway into the seven home Test matches they play between August 2024 and January 2025, with two Test matches in South Africa at the turn of the year.

Sunrisers Hyderabad coach will attend the IPL auction in Jeddah during the first Test, despite being Australia’s bowling coach

Alex Malcolm18-Nov-2024Australia’s bowling coach Daniel Vettori will leave the team during the first Test against India in Perth to attend the IPL auction in Saudi Arabia as Sunrisers Hyderabad coach.The Test starts on November 22 at Perth’s Optus Stadium while the IPL auction will take place in Jeddah over two days on November 24-25, which has caused some conflict for three IPL coaches – Vettori, Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer, who are in Perth to either coach or commentate.Vettori is one of the rare coaches in world cricket that holds a permanent assistant role with an international team while also being the full-time head coach of an IPL franchise and the full-time head coach of a Hundred side in Birmingham Phoenix.Vettori has been Australia’s bowling coach for all three formats since 2022 working under long-time friend Andrew McDonald. He is highly-valued by Cricket Australia to the point where they have allowed him to pursue franchise coaching roles around his commitments with the men’s team.”We are very supportive of Dan’s role as Head Coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad,” an Australia team spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “Dan will complete final preparation for the first Test before attending the IPL auction. He will then be with team for the remainder of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.”The prioritisation of the IPL auction over a Test match, as well as the scheduling of the auction in Saudi Arabia during an Australia-India Test, is a sign of the times. Ponting and Langer, who are employed as commentators with Australian broadcaster Channel Seven, are also set to miss part of the Test to attend the auction as head coaches of Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.Vettori has missed certain series in recent years due to his franchise commitments with replacement coaches seconded to work with Australia. However, this will be the first time he will leave midway through a Test to attend the IPL auction, having been able to fulfil his duties with Australia this time last year against Pakistan before flying to India for the auction in between matches.CA is also advertising for a new full-time national pace bowling coach who will be able to fill-in for Vettori in the future on tours that he misses.Vettori was on deck with Australia’s squad at their first day of training at the WACA ground on Monday, working closely with the bowling unit while also throwing left-arm orthodox deliveries to the batters in preparation for facing Ravindra Jadeja in the Perth Test.Australia had two consultants working with their main coaching team on Monday in former Australia batter Michael Hussey and former Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Somerset allrounder Jim Allenby, who is permanently based in Perth. Both men worked with Australia’s team ahead of the first Test against Pakistan last summer and will be with the team all week in the lead in to the Test match.Australia’s fielding coach Andre Borovec is currently in charge of the T20I side that is playing the three-match series against Pakistan which concludes in Hobart on Monday night. Both he and Josh Inglis, the stand-in T20 captain, will fly from Hobart to Perth tomorrow to join the Test squad.CA’s national development coach Lachlan Stevens, who coached Australia A against India A and coaches Australia’s Under 19s, will fly into Perth to as additional support for the team when Vettori departs.

Kuhnemann bowled, batted and fielded in Brisbane and said his surgically repaired fractured thumb is almost pain-free

Alex Malcolm23-Jan-20251:01

Clarke: Kuhnemann should tell everyone he’s fully fit

Matthew Kuhnemann says his surgically repaired right thumb is almost pain-free after bowling, batting and fielding in Brisbane on Thursday. He now awaits official clearance to fly to Sri Lanka to join Australia’s Test squad just a week after suffering a compound dislocation and fracture while playing in the BBL.The left-arm orthodox spinner is a key part of Australia’s plans for the two-Test series in Sri Lanka, with both Tests in Galle, but his tour looked in severe jeopardy when he was struck on the thumb during Brisbane Heat’s five-wicket loss to Hobart Hurricanes last Thursday.Kuhnemann, 28, was driven to the hospital that night by Heat team-mate Daniel Drew where he had the dislocation put back into place before having surgery the following morning to put a pin in the fracture.Related

• Smith feared significant elbow injury after outfield throw

• 'It doesn't look great': Kuhnemann's Sri Lanka tour in jeopardy after thumb injury

• Smith's assist in Connolly's selection, ten years on from childhood photo

Kuhnemann’s recovery, though, has been rapid and he is hopeful he can fly to Sri Lanka after bowling eight overs at Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Thursday. Kuhnemann also batted, facing throw downs from Heat and Queensland bowling coach Andy Bichel. He also took a few catches during the session that was overseen by Heat’s team physio Adam Smith.Speaking to reporters, Kuhnemann said he was feeling good but needed to consult Australia’s medical staff in Dubai via a conference call on Thursday evening, where the squad are holding a pre-tour training camp, before being cleared to join them when they fly to Sri Lanka in the next few days.”Nothing’s official yet,” Kuhnemann said. “I think it was more about just ticking off the boxes each day this week, and so far it’s gone to plan. I’m hoping so, but nothing’s come out yet. I’ll probably speak to the medical team this afternoon. My bowling, batting and fielding has gone excellent so far. So I’ll just relay that message. There’s a bit of a time zone difference and hopefully, I can get on the plane over there.”I’m feeling really good, really grateful with how it sort of progressed in the last week. It’s healed really well, and the surgery went excellent. Very fortunate and lucky so far that I’m sort of in a position to be able to bowl and bat and catch a few balls. Everything’s gone to plan so far. There’s not much pain at all any more, and no pain bowling and batting.”Kuhnemann has had a plastic thumb splint made to protect his right thumb and can wear it in games without needing to remove it as it is on his non-bowling hand. He has worn a similar splint in the past having previously broken the same thumb. He is confident that if a ball is hit back at him with power again, his thumb will withstand any blow.Matt Kuhnemann could yet feature in the Sri Lanka Tests•BCCI

“This is a conversation I had with the surgeons and doctors and it’s really stable now,” Kuhnemann said. “It’s probably more stable than it was beforehand. I’ve broken that thumb before and now I’ve got surgery on it, it’s probably in a better state.”I’ve played cricket with splints on and I’m very confident, it doesn’t affect my bowling or batting and fielding. If anything, I’m probably more confident in the field, because you’ve got something on your finger.”He said he would have no fear if a ball came at him in the field. “No, not at all,” Kuhnemann said. “That’s cricket in general. Balls have been hit back at me a lot harder, and I’ve been fine. So this is one of those freak incidents that it’s hit probably the exact spot it had to for it to cause some damage. I’ve already caught some balls. Andy Bichel’s already thrown some balls back at me straight away, so there’s no problem with that.”Kuhnemann was a very strong chance of playing in the first Test in Galle prior to the injury. He played three Tests in India in 2023 as part of a three-man spin attack alongside offspinners Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy. But the selectors have been clear in their desire to have a left-arm orthodox in the attack to complement Lyon, which meant Kuhnemann was in line to play if only two spinners were selected in the XI.Even if he is cleared to join the squad, a decision will still need to be made about his fitness to play. “I think everyone will have a bit of a say,” Kuhnemann said. “I think it’d be a good discussion.”I’ll just be honest with them, I think. So far, it’s tracking really well, so I’m confident. But there’s obviously protocols you’ve got to go through.”

Strong third-innings batting performances from Rahane and Suryakumar eventually set a stiff target for Haryana on a deteriorating pitch

Shashank Kishore11-Feb-2025A maiden five-wicket haul from left-arm seamer Royston Dias studded Mumbai’s 153-run win over Haryana at Eden Gardens. Up next in the semi-final will be Vidarbha, in a repeat of last year’s final.Dias fittingly picked up the final wicket when he had Jayant Yadav top-edge a pull to Suryakumar Yadav at mid-on to complete his five-wicket haul. Shardul Thakur, who picked up 6 for 58 in the first innings, was the other contributor. He ended with a match haul of 9 for 84 as Mumbai completed a sensational turnaround from 94 for 6 on the first morning.Related

• 'I thought I played well in WTC final 2023' – Rahane on getting dropped from Test team

• 'Genuine allrounder' Tanush Kotian continues to be Mumbai's crisis man

• Urvil Patel, bowlers lead Saurashtra's demolition in Sheldon Jackson's farewell game

Mumbai’s turnaround was orchestrated by Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani, who put together 165 for the eighth wicket as they posted 315 in the first innings. Haryana responded solidly with Ankit Kumar, the captain, hitting 136, but from 218 for 3, Haryana collapsed to be bowled out for 301, thereby conceding a 14-run lead.Mumbai converted a slender lead into a match-winning one courtesy Ajinkya Rahane’s 108. The Mumbai captain put together a 129-run stand with Suryakumar, who ended a lean run of form with a typically robust 70 to set up the innings. Shivam Dube then made 48 to swell the lead further. Haryana were a bowler short for the entire second innings with seamer Ajit Chahal injured.Mumbai were poised for a lead of over 400, but collapsed on the fourth morning, losing 6 for 25 to set Haryana a 354-run target. They weren’t in the chase at any stage, stumbling to 60 for 5 very quickly. Opener Lakshay Dalal top scored with 64 while Sumit Kumar hit 62 as the pair briefly frustrated Mumbai with a 90-run sixth-wicket stand before the floodgates opened.

England captain says team won’t veer from aggressive style despite chastening defeat at Wankhede

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2025

Abhishek Sharma launches one down the ground•Getty Images

Jos Buttler, England’s captain, hailed Abhishek Sharma for producing some of the “cleanest ball-striking I’ve ever seen”, but insisted his team would not veer from the aggressive strategies they’ve brought to bear in their first series since Brendon McCullum took over as white-ball head coach.Abhishek’s stunning innings of 135 from 54 balls, the highest score ever made by an Indian batter in T20Is, proved to be 38 more runs than England’s entire line-up could muster in reply, as they were routed for 97 in 10.3 overs, to succumb to a 4-1 series loss.England’s eventual 150-run defeat was their biggest in the format, and a crushing end to an intermittently competitive series. Though Buttler acknowledged his team had had their chances to turn the campaign in their favour, he was happy to bow down to one of the mightiest batting displays imaginable.”We’re obviously disappointed,” Buttler said. “I’ve played quite a lot of cricket, and credit to Abhishek Sharma. That’s as clean a ball-striking as I’ve seen. He played fantastically well. We always sit down and think what more could we have done. But some days, you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition. I thought he played brilliantly well.”Buttler said that Abhishek’s display was a continuation of the full-blooded form he showed alongside Travis Head for Sunrisers Hyderabad in last year’s IPL. In such run-laden displays, he added, contests tend to go one of two ways.”I’ve played in a few games like this,” he said. “You either get somewhere near, or you fall in a heap, and today was that day. It can be difficult when a player gets on a roll, and plays as well as he did. Credit to us for sticking in there and fighting back, and keeping them down to 240, after the start they got.”England’s reply got off to a misleadingly flying start, with Phil Salt cracking 17 runs off Mohammad Shami’s first over, en route to a 21-ball fifty. But his was a lone hand as wickets continued to tumble at the other end, with the entire team being bowled out just after the halfway mark of their chase.”The way Phil Salt went out there and struck the ball, it was obviously a really good wicket,” Buttler said. “He needed someone to go with him, and for one or two guys to catch fire. That’s the way you’re going to chase that down. You either get quite close in games like this and surprise yourselves, or it doesn’t work.Related

• 'In the zone' Abhishek salutes seniors for guiding him to century

• Abhishek, rattle and roll at the Wankhede

• Compromise may be needed with concussion subs to ensure player safety

• Abhishek shatters records and England in Mumbai

• Gambhir on India's approach: 'We want to try and get to 250-260 regularly'

“But we certainly won’t change the way we want to play. We need to keep backing that, and be even more committed.”The final match got underway just 48 hours after the controversy at Pune, where fast bowler Harshit Rana stepped in as a concussion sub after a blow to the helmet for Shivam Dube. Dube declared himself “good to go” before the toss in Mumbai, despite the ICC’s protocols stating that a seven-day lay-off should be mandatory in such situations, and Buttler hinted at his continued annoyance by describing his four non-selected players as “impact subs”.Speaking after the defeat, however, he struck a more conciliatory tone. “He’s pulled up pretty well from a nasty blow on the head, hopefully he’s okay,” Buttler said, after Dube had scored 30 from 13 balls and claimed 2 for 11 in his two overs. “I’m sure he must have been happy with the risk he took or their medical staff were. Maybe a question for them.”Legspinner Varun Chakravarthy also played a key role in derailing England’s chase with figures of 2 for 25, and was named player of the series for his 14 wickets at 9.85. England’s struggles against spin have been a feature of all five matches, but Buttler said his players would be stronger for the experience.”Playing against India, you know you’re going to be faced with a lot of spin, but I’m not worried,” Buttler said. “There’s some really good players there and some guys having their first experiences in these conditions. Every day, you’re learning, improving, working things out as you go along and gaining more experience and trying to accelerate that process.”We certainly won’t change the way we want to play, we need to keep backing that, be even more committed and be desperate to do well and execute that,” he added. “If we’re going to fall, I’d rather fall on the proactive side. Hopefully, over time you get more comfortable with that and play better.”