Jamie Overton says Sam Curran has stood up for England when the heat is on
The all-rounder helped his team-mates get over the line in T20 World Cup group phase matches against Nepal and Italy.
Sam Curran is once again proving England’s man for the big moment at the T20 World Cup after helping them negotiate a trickier-than-anticipated group stage.
Without Curran, England might have been embarrassingly eliminated at the first hurdle as he defended 10 from the final over against Nepal last week before shutting down Italy’s charge at the death on Monday.
Italy needed 30 off 12 balls after Adil Rashid conceded 21 from his last over but Curran dismissed the dangerous Grant Stewart and England did not look back as they guaranteed a top-two finish in Group C.
Curran has also made a couple of crucial cameos with the bat to show his worth after an up-and-down past few years since being crowned player of the tournament in England’s 2022 triumph in Australia.
Twelve months ago, Curran was not in any England squad and had not featured under head coach Brendon McCullum, but some stellar domestic displays led to his recall at the end of last summer.
As well as adding some new strings to his bow, such as his mid-40mph ‘moon ball’, the 27-year-old’s consistency in India has stood out amid England’s collective lacklustre displays so far.
Jamie Overton said of his team-mate: “He’s shown when the pressure is on, he stands up. That’s the sort of cricketer he is.
“He’s had a difficult sort of 12 months but he’s come back and it’s great to have him back.”
While Curran finished with three for 22 against Italy in Kolkata, Overton quietly impressed again with figures of 4-1-18-3, including two wickets in the final over in England’s 24-run win.
Concerns, though, persist with England’s top-order and especially Jos Buttler and Phil Salt, with the pair contributing just 114 runs in the tournament at averages of 13.25 and 15.25 respectively.
Buttler is widely regarded as England’s greatest white-ball batter of all-time and Salt has four hundreds in 56 T20s – only India’s Rohit Sharma and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell have more.
Overton said: “We know the skill of Jos and Phil at the top of the order, they’ve shown in the last two or three years how destructive they can be.
“They’ve had not the best games but we know they’re going to come good and when they do, it’s going to be really explosive and we can’t wait to watch it.”
England have now moved to Sri Lanka, where they recently won both white-ball series, including a 3-0 clean sweep of their hosts in the T20s earlier this month, ahead of the Super 8s group stage.
Their opponents have not yet been confirmed but are likely to be tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka, plus New Zealand and Pakistan, and Overton hopes a change of scenery can kickstart England’s campaign.
Overton added: “There’s some good feelings going back there and fingers crossed we can put in a couple of good performances.
“We’ve still got a few things to work on, we know we’re not quite where we need to be.
“We’ve got a saying amongst the group – no one’s going to be braver than us, the way we’re going to go about playing our cricket. It might not work every time but we’re going to give everything we can.”
