T20 World Cup 2022: England captain Jos Buttler confident of semi-finals despite rain woes | Cricket News

MELBOURNE a washout against Ashes rival Australia and a DLS defeat to Ireland may have made their knockout qualification more difficult but England captain Jos Buttler said they are not worried unless it goes “completely out of control” in the T20 World Cup.
The 2010 champions, who managed just one win against minnows Afghanistan in the Super 12 stage, now face two tough must-win games against New Zealand (Tuesday) and Sri Lanka (Saturday).
Australia, on the other hand, have relatively easier tasks facing Ireland (Monday) and Afghanistan (Friday) in their remaining Group 1 matches. Top two teams qualify for the semi-finals.

“Listen, until something is completely out of our control, we’re not going to worry about it. We know we’ve got two games left to play. We want to win those two games, give ourselves the best chance to get to the next round ,” Buttler said after their match against Australia was called off due to persistent showers at the MCG here on Friday.
As of now, all six teams from Group 1 are in contention for a semi-final. New Zealand, England, Ireland and Australia each have three points. Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have two each and the former have a game in hand.
“Yeah, we’ll do well to live up to that one, won’t we? For us, we knew after losing the game against Ireland by three – the way the format is anyway, every game is a must-win ,” Buttler said.
“Look, we know we have to turn up and play our best cricket, give ourselves the best chance to win the games and give ourselves the best chance to go through to the next round.”
Melbourne is experiencing its wettest October since 1975, which forced the cancellation of T20 World Cup matches, but Buttler had no complaints about the situation they now find themselves in.

“I don’t really have any frustrations. We all want to play full games of cricket. We all do. Obviously we play an outdoor sport and the elements are a big part of our game. It affects the surfaces we play on on. They affect conditions. They’re an interesting part of what makes the sport really unique,” he said.
“Unfortunately we’ve had two games affected by the weather now. You don’t want to be involved in those games but it’s going to happen wherever you play, or certainly some places you play in the world, you go over generally after some time affected by weather conditions.
Buttler further backed the umpires’ decision to stop the match, saying the conditions were not “fit to play”.
“They (umpires) had some big concerns, and I think rightly so. The outfield is very wet. There are some areas inside the 30-metre circle that were not fit for play,” he said .
“As much as we all want to play cricket and stuff, it has to be safe, and it certainly wasn’t. “Player safety is very important, and it wasn’t fit to play. Whether it’s our bowlers or Australia’s bowlers, I think the right call was made unfortunately.”
“Yes, it’s a shame tonight, especially for everyone involved. Australia against England at the MCG in a must-win World Cup game is as big as it gets in your career and those are the games you want to be involved.” Buttler said.
“No matter what the result is going to be, it’s something you want to experience as a cricket team. You don’t know how often those kinds of opportunities will come up. So I think there’s an element of sadness that you don’t . win, win, lose or tie, play the game.”