Sharjah [UAE]: Jos Buttler praised the character of his England teammates as they came through a tough test against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Opening the batting, Buttler won his side the match with his maiden T20I century coming off only 67 balls and was one of several fielders to excel as England beat Sri Lanka by 26 runs. England was put in to bat for the first time in Sharjah and Buttler believes his side did well to deal with the dewy conditions. “It’s hard to guess if the dew is going to come in or not. Obviously tonight it did and I think it certainly changed conditions. I think it was a great win for us as a team. The three matches before we’ve won the toss and done what we wanted to do, so today to be probably on the worst end of the conditions showed character for what we did as a side,” Buttler said in an official ICC release. “One of our bowlers getting injured, guys having to step up and bowl some overs at the tough times, the character in the group and what that will do for us as a side is fantastic,” he added. With England, all but confirming their place in the semi-finals with their fourth win out of four, the shine of the victory may have been taken off somewhat by the loss of Tymal Mills to a quad injury midway through his second over. However, captain Eoin Morgan got his batting back on track – making 40 off 36 in a partnership of 106 with Buttler, something he believes will give them belief. “Setting a target, the game’s not laid out for you, especially finding it tricky, early on, soaking up some duck balls and you can put yourself under a bit of pressure. But believing that at some point I’d come good and I enjoyed batting with Morgs I think, he is a great person to have at the other end and we worked it through together,” said Buttler. “I’m delighted we put that partnership together and got us off to a spot which turned down with the way that things conditions when we needed every run,” he added.
