England opener Phil Salt admitted that he had to “fight a bit harder” than usual after overcoming a poor start to perform a game-changing innings against India in the third Twenty20 International at Trent Bridge. Phil Salt led England with 70 off 44 deliveries as they achieved a challenging 201/7. India was then comprehensively trounced by the hosts, who bundled them out for just 76.
The right-handed hitter had a remarkably quiet start to his innings, scoring just 17 runs off his first 19 deliveries. In the middle of a maiden over from Arshdeep Singh, Salt struggled to find his rhythm and appeared clearly agitated.
However, the opener altered his strategy after facing Varun Chakravarthy, striking the spinner for a six before scoring 53 runs off his final 25 balls to end England’s innings.
“It’s definitely foreign territory in T20 cricket, the way the game’s going, being on the slower side of things,” Phil Salt said after the match, adding that although batting more slowly early in a Twenty20 innings was unusual, it helped him better understand the situation. However, Salt is described by Cricinfo as adding,
“As a batter, it’s so valuable to have that time to assess the conditions and to make sure that you’re making smart decisions and mitigating risk to the best of your ability.”
“Part of being an opening batter in T20 cricket, especially when you’re playing against sides like India, is getting off to a good start and putting them under pressure,” Alt continued, adding that England’s cautious start allowed the hitters to assess the pitch, which turned out to be more challenging than expected.
We didn’t go off right away, so it wasn’t an explosive start, but that allowed us to evaluate and share what the surface and they were doing,” he added.
On the Trent Bridge surface, England’s opening total of 201 felt well over par thanks to Sam Curran’s unbeaten 41 and a late cameo from Will Jacks.
Phil Salt also underlined that adapting to different situations is a crucial aspect of modern T20 cricket, even if it means giving up his naturally aggressive style: “Sometimes, it works and it’s easy; sometimes, you’ve got to fight a bit harder, and find a different route into the game.”
In white-ball cricket, things have changed here [at Trent Bridge] in recent years; surfaces don’t always have the same appearance as they did when they were excellent batting wickets,” he said.
England’s clinical all-around performance gave them a commanding 2-0 lead with their crucial victory against the visitors.
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