In Sam Curran's 95, Buttler saw shades of MS Dhoni
Pune: England's stand-in skipper Jos Buttler saw shades of legendary finisher Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Sam Curran's valiant 95 not out in the third and final ODI against India here.
In pursuit of 330, England slumped to 168 for six at the midway stage but Sam, who came into bat at No. 8, took them to the verge of an unlikely win with his counterattacking knock.
"Sam played an outstanding innings there and will take a lot from that moving forward, even though there's the disappointment of losing the game," Buttler said at the post-match press conference on Sunday night.
"I'm sure there were shades of the way that he (MS Dhoni) would have liked to take the game down if he was in that situation. He's a great person for Sam to have a conversation with when he meets up MS (in the IPL)."
"He's a real impact player in the game. He will just continue to get better and better. He is still only 22 and the scope of where you can take his game to is massive. So we're all very excited for him."
India won a close game by seven runs despite Sam's exploits with the bat.
Continuing his praise for Sam, Buttler said: "Many guys are never really exposed to that kind of situation in their whole career. He will take great learning from that. I can't think of many times myself I've ever been in those situations.
"All of us in the team and the squad will have taken great learning from watching him and trying to think through how we would take that situation down individually as well."
The pace bowling all-rounder not only notched his career-best score but also dismissed the dangerous-looking Rishabh Pant for a 62-ball 78.
"Sam just keeps showing what a match-winner he is really. He came up with Rishabh Pant's wicket as well. He takes big wickets whether it's a Test, ODI or T20.
"We're all very proud of the way Sam played, showed all the traits that we know he has in abundance and the character and the skill level that embodies what we're about as a team."
In contrast to the Test series that India won handsomely by a 3-1 margin, England showed resistance in the white-ball leg, even as they lost in both the 20-over and 50-over rubbers.
Buttler, who led the side after Eoin Morgan suffered a split-webbing in the first ODI, said there were a lot of positive takeaways.
"There'll be some great learnings taken from the tour, and some great exposure to players playing in this part of the world for the first time," he said, referring to the impressive performances from Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone, who made his ODI debut in the second match.
"We've expanded the talent pool available to us in one-day cricket, building ahead to the T20 World Cup in a few months' time and, of course, the 2023 World Cup later on down the line as well.
"So anytime we expand that player pool, that creates competition, that creates better performances, and that's the upward trajectory that we're always after as a side, that continuous improvement," he added.
The loss meant that the reigning world champions have now suffered successive ODI series defeats. They had earlier lost to Australia by the same 1-2 margin at home.
"We've been a brilliant side for a long time now... We've lost two series now but it's two series in the last 11, I wouldn't read too much into it."
Apart from Morgan, England also had pace spearhead Jofra Archer on the injured list, while Joe Root and Chis Woakes were rested as part of their rotation policy.
"We are still a very good side and we're expanding the talent pool with a few guys missing and few other guys getting opportunities."
"It's a long cycle looking ahead to the next World Cup (in 2023) and of course you want to learn and win at the same time.
"We're disappointed when we don't do that but there's a big picture. I think we're in a good place," he concluded.
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AI Summit Protest: Delhi court grants bail to IYC president Chib
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has granted bail to Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Uday Bhanu Chib, who was arrested in connection with a protest at the India AI Impact Summit.
Chib was produced before the duty magistrate around 1 am on Saturday as his four-day police custody, granted by the court on February 24, came to an end.
Duty Magistrate Vanshika Mehta was hearing an application by the Delhi Police seeking a seven-day extension of his custody. However, she dismissed the plea and granted him bail.
Speaking to the media, Chib's counsel informed that bail was granted by the magistrate against the surety bond of Rs 50,000, and the court has also directed his client to surrender his passport and electronic gadgets.
"The duty magistrate was pleased enough to grant bail to Uday Bhanu Chib and has explained in the bail order that the police crime branch has not been able to explain the reasons for seeking extension of PC remand to Uday Bhanu Chib," the IYC president's counsel said.
On February 24, the court allowed four days of custody to the police to question Chib over his role in the AI Summit protest held at Bharat Mandapam here, during which IYC members took their shirts off to reveal anti-Modi and anti-Centre slogans on T-shirts beneath.
The summit began on February 16 and saw packed halls and long queues throughout, as tech moguls, industry leaders, policymakers, and founders thronged the venue.
The accused wore T-shirts bearing images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, with slogans against the government and the India-US trade deal.
The protesters also allegedly engaged in a protracted scuffle with security personnel and police staff deployed at the venue.
