5 October - Ahmedabad - England Captain Jos Buttler post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
Hi Jos, feels like it's been a long time since England have suffered a defeat of that sort of magnitude. How does it feel to be on the end of that?
[Jos Buttler:]
Yeah, disappointed. Completely outplayed. But the first thing that springs to mind is whether you do lose by a run or a defeat like that, it is one loss at the start of a very long tournament. So, that’s something that I’d be encouraging everyone to remember. It's certainly a tough loss to take we were outplayed but you know we've got a lot of experience in the room - guys who've been through lots of things and faced defeats like that before. So just as we had won the game, we don't get too high and we don't get too low when we lose as well.
[Reporter:]
Clearly the two Kiwi guys played exceptional innings. Is there anything in the way you went about your business today that you would choose to do differently?
[Jos Buttler:]
I think we were short of runs with the bat. I think the wicket probably did get better under the lights, but I think we were a long way short of our best with the bat and still made 280.
So, we're probably looking at a score of 320, 330 which would have allowed us to build some kind of pressure and stuff. But I thought the margin for error was very small on that wicket and two batters who played exceptional innings.
[Reporter:]
Does that performance and defeat underline what a key part of that team Ben Stokes is?
[Jos Buttler:]
No, not at all.
I think Ben's a top player but we've got many top players. I think everyone in the team got into double figures today and we didn't have enough guys go on and make telling contributions. It's not just Ben who is able to score runs in our team. We've got brilliant players right throughout the squad. So, we had a lot of starts. I thought we were just a bit off in our execution. We weren't quite clinical enough with our shot making and gifted New Zealand a few wickets. And as I just mentioned, we were a long way short of our best and still made 280, which shows the level that we can play at.
[Reporter:]
Are you confident that you guys can turn it around and put in a performance that's more like the real England we've come to know and love over the past of eight years or so in that next game? What do you need to do to do that?
[Jos Buttler:]
Play better.
[Reporter:]
Have you got any idea where that performance did come from? You say that you're just a bit short of runs maybe gifted some wickets you know mistakes happen of course they do but has that level of performance surprised you at all?
[Jos Buttler:]
Oh no, we're not robots. Sometimes you don't play as well as you would like. Everyone's working hard everyone's prepared well and as I said we were just a bit off. In international cricket when you're a little bit short and the opposition played very well, you're going to lose the game of cricket. So, there's plenty of stuff for us to work on and get better at the start of a long tournament. As I said, it's one loss. It's a tough one, but we'll be better for the next one.
[Reporter:]
We have all seen Devon Conway's attacking style of batting. But did Rachin Ravindra's style catch you by surprise?
[Jos Buttler:]
No, not really. We played against him recently and he got some runs at Lords and played really well. And obviously in the warm-up game at Hyderabad, I think he opened the batting or batted three and played really well as well.
So, I think the two guys, if I look back, it wasn't like they were playing outrageous shots or scooping it over the keeper's head. They played excellent cricket shots and got fantastic value on that pitch. I thought it was a fantastic batting wicket. The margin felt very small for the bowlers and if you're a little bit off, they put you away. So, I thought those two guys played really, really well and put together obviously a quite incredible partnership.
[Reporter:]
Just a subset of that same question about the wicket. Did it change at all under the lights? Was it coming on a bit better, you felt?
[Jos Buttler:]
Yeah, I think the wicket got better. We were looking to bowl first as well if we won the toss with the thought that it would play better under the lights. But I still think it was a good wicket. I felt like when I was batting, I was quite enjoying the wicket. I thought it was good and building a nice partnership with Joe. You know, we just didn't go on and finish our batting innings as we would like. And as I mentioned, everyone in our team getting into double figures and we didn't have enough really telling contributions.
[Reporter:]
So, a short question, Was there any dew out there later on?
[Jos Buttler:]
A little bit.
[Reporter:]
Did it affect things at all?
[Jos Buttler:]
No.