Want to go into semis on the back of a win, says Buttler

England’s white-ball resurgence story is often celebrated by those that saw the team crashing out of the 2015 World Cup early. Since then, so strong have England’s performances been that ‘resurgence’ seems too mild a word – it’s almost the norm now.

But the memories of England as a soft white-ball force are so entrenched that every time it pulls off a win like it did against New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 game at Cardiff Wales Stadium on Tuesday, the contrast between then and now automatically comes to mind.

Thanks to Jos Buttler’s pyrotechnics, England not just crossed the 300-run mark but ended up with 310, and looked capable of more before Tim Southee ended things with two wickets in two balls.

In the 41st over, England had lost Moeen Ali. It could count on a few runs from Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett, but to get a match-winning total it was going to be down to Buttler to provide the thrust. He was then on a run-a-ball 17. In the 51 balls that were bowled since then till the end of the innings, Buttler faced 31, and took 44 runs off them.

The shots Buttler played were as audacious as the smarts he showed in batting with the lower order. There was a pull off Southee that was slapped to mid-wicket. There was the most astonishing shot of all, a ramp to a Trent Boult bouncer outside off stump that sailed so far over the boundary rope behind that it was only stopped from travelling outside altogether because it hit the railing on which the cameramen were stationed right at the top. Buttler didn’t spare any bowler, unleashing a flat six over long-on off Adam Milne with a horizontal bat that could have bored a hole through the advertising boards.

And to reiterate the aggression-till-death-do-us-part approach of England, Buttler felt that the batsmen couldn’t throw their bats around enough because a few wickets had fallen.

“I think the wicket was just slowing up a bit, and with such a big boundary (on the sides) we were trying to use that and run twos as much as possible,” he said after the game. “Probably didn’t find the boundary as much as I’d have liked to, and we probably couldn’t quite throw caution to the winds because we kept losing a few wickets. But yes, I wanted to take that responsibility to bat till the end and ensure we get up to over 300.”

The ramp shot was not just Buttler being outrageously innovative because he could be, there was strategy behind it. Strong winds had been blowing across the ground all day, and with the breeze in that direction, Buttler knew that some of his work would be done by nature. “That’s something I try to work hard on and with the wind today, it was quite helpful,” he said of the shot. “I tried it quite early on as well. Just with the wind, I thought it was quite a short boundary anyway, so to try and utilise that. It’s always good fun when they come off.”

England is already assured of the top spot in Group A with two wins in two games, and has ensured its semi-final will be in Cardiff. Before that, though, there is the small matter of the chance to send Australia out of the tournament when the two oldest cricketing rivals meet at Edgbaston on Saturday.

Buttler said that while sending Australia home would be a “nice outcome”, the goals of this England team were wider. “Yes of course,” he said when asked if the games still had edge. “Any England-Australia game is a huge game. It would be nice (to eliminate Australia). We didn’t think too much about that. We just want to win and keep our momentum going no matter who we’re playing. But it’s always nice to know that would be the outcome if we did win.

“We now know we’ve qualified for the semifinals but we want to be going into the semifinals on the back of a win, so that’s what we’ll be desperate to do. We’ve been going well. Bangladesh (in the first match) was a good performance, and here again a good performance. For a number of months leading into the tournament we’ve been playing some good cricket and we’ve been confident, so hopefully we can just keep our feet on the ground, keep doing the things we’ve been doing and look forward to the back end of the tournament.”

The last time Buttler was at Edgbaston, he smashed 129 off 77 against New Zealand in 2015, and England won by 210 runs. Overall it has won 21 and lost only 13 at the venue. “It can be a really good wicket there, and we’ve got some good memories playing there,” said Buttler. “It’s a ground we like playing at, but that’s one of the advantages of being at home isn’t it, so you’ve got to make the most of that.”