The United States was eliminated from the T20 Cricket World Cup after a heavy defeat to England in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Jos Buttler scored an unbeaten 83 runs – seven of which were sixes – off just 38 balls at the Kensington Oval, bringing America’s target of 116 within reach with 62 balls to spare.
England are the defending champions in the sport’s shortest format and are currently in the semi-finals.
Nitish Kumar (30) top-scored with the bat for USA and Adil Rashid performed well to keep the co-hosts in check before Chris Jordan took a hat-trick – three wickets in three successive balls – to limit the total to just 115.
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England, who lost to South Africa last time out, gave the US no chance to fight back, with captain Buttler in particular being devastating.
His 24th T20 half-century included five sixes from an over off Harmeet Singh, while Phil Salt’s 25 from 21 balls helped England to a comfortable 10-wicket win.
“It’s a tough game to take,” U.S. captain Aaron Jones said. “To be honest with you, we weren’t as disciplined as we should have been. It’s similar to the last game and it’s something we have to talk about going forward.”
“The wicket was a bit sticky and Adil Rashid is certainly a very good bowler. I think our shot selection wasn’t the best. We knew he is dangerous on this wicket but still we gave him a couple of wickets.”
Buttler was devastating with his batting (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
The United States had a phenomenal performance in their first international tournament, progressing to the Super Eight, the second group stage, and thus qualifying automatically for the next T20 World Cup, to be held in India and Sri Lanka in 2026.
The United States qualified for the second phase with wins over Canada and Pakistan in the group stage and a rain-cancelled match against Ireland.
The team suffered a narrow defeat to South Africa in the opening Super Eight match on Wednesday and then suffered a heavy defeat to the West Indies on Friday.
“Did we lose momentum? You could say that,” Jones admitted. “The last two games weren’t good and we can certainly talk about that. That goes for you. The World Cup was a lot of fun.”
England now await their semi-final opponents, with the result of the match between the West Indies and South Africa later on Sunday determining who will top the Super Eights Group 2 standings.
The winner will face two of India, Australia, Afghanistan or Bangladesh in the semi-finals before the final in Bridgetown on June 29.
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(Robert Cianfrone/Getty Images)