Fresh from scoring an excellent 69 on the fourth day against India, Jos Buttler believes that his side’s 233-run advantage is ‘plenty to work with’ but wants a lead of 250-plus.
After enduring a testing morning courtesy of some wicked seam bowling from the Indian attack, England’s middle-order rallied to great effect, Buttler sharing stands of 56 and 55 with Ben Stokes and Sam Curran, respectively.
With two days yet to play and just Jimmy Anderson left in the hut to bat, Buttler was positive regarding his side’s valiant efforts, but thinks a few more in the morning would set England in even better stead.
“We’ve got plenty to work with already but anything about 250 would be a great number to try and eke out tomorrow morning. That would give us plenty of runs on a challenging pitch,” he said to SkySports following the day’s play.
“You go through phases batting on this pitch – at times it feels like a good wicket but then a couple of balls will spin from the rough and then you find it harder for a bit. A few have kept a bit lower and brought the stumps into play as well.
“You are always trying to find the right balance between attack and defence. We got it wrong in the first innings and it was an obvious one to address for the second innings. But you’ve got to look to score runs, especially in a low-scoring game like this one.”
“The new ball will be an important period in the game – when the old ball got softer it became easier to bat.
