England took a big step towards reaching the Super 8 stage of the Men’s T20 World Cup by closing out a five-wicket win over Scotland in Kolkata.
Harry Brook's side had clung on for a four-run win over Nepal and lost to the West Indies in their first two Group C matches, leaving them fourth in the five-team standings and under pressure to avoid an embarrassing early exit.
Richie Berrington (49) and Tom Bruce (24) put on an impressive 71-run stand to help Scotland recover from 42-3 after losing the toss and being put into bat by England, who responded by claiming five wickets in the space of 21 balls.
Scotland were eventually dismissed for 152 after 19.4 overs, before Tom Banton's brilliant 33-ball 50 saw England respond from losing both openers early to accelerate towards their victory target.
Banton finished unbeaten on 63 and put on key stands with Jacob Bethell (32) and Sam Curran (28), with Will Jacks (16 not out) closing out victory with back-to-back boundaries as England chased down their target with 10 balls to spare and claim their second win of the tournament.
England are now guaranteed a place in the Super 8s with victory over Italy on Monday (live on Your Site Cricket from 9.30am), while Scotland need to beat Nepal on Tuesday and for results to go their way for them to have any chance of progressing.
George Munsey (four) top-scored in Monday's win over Italy but fell cheaply when he skied Jofra Archer (2-24) high into the air and picked out Banton, with Scotland batters picking out England fielders quickly becoming a theme throughout the innings.
Brandon McMullen (nought) pulled to Phil Salt in the deep in the same over to see Archer reach 50 wickets in T20Is, while Michael Jones (33) hit Curran's first three balls for 14 runs then sent a slower ball straight to Bethell at deep midwicket.
Scotland responded to three wickets in the powerplay by attacking spin and scoring regular boundaries in an aggressive 41-ball stand between Berrington and Bruce, which ended when Bruce - chasing a second six of the over - slog-swept to Curran in the deep.
Berrington was trapped lbw by Adil Rashid (3-36), with Michael Leask (one) and Matt Cross (eight) gifting simple catches to England before Rashid bowled Mark Watt (two) to leave Scotland 126-8 with four overs remaining.
Wheal (two) hacked Jamie Overton to Jacks at long-on and Brad Currie (two) was run out with two balls remaining, leaving Olly Davidson (20 from 15) unbeaten, with England making a nightmare start to their chase when Salt (two) fell in McMullen's opening over.
Buttler - marking his 150th T20I appearance - became the first Englishman and just the fourth ever to reach 4,000 international runs, only for him to be caught trying to hit Currie over the circle to leave them in potential trouble at 13-2.
Banton had made three successive single-figure scores in T20Is and took six from his first 10 balls, then sparked his innings by firing Watt for three consecutive sixes - during a 22-run over - as part of a 63-run partnership with Bethell.
Scotland fought back when Bethell departed trying to scoop Davidson (1-12) and Brook (four) fell in similar fashion to Leask an over later, leaving England 86-4 but still ahead of the required run rate.
Curran added 46 with Banton but top-edged Wheal to Cross, with England 21 away from victory, before Jacks wrapped up the win - in the penultimate over - by hammering Wheal for a six and four.
Player of the Match Tom Banton (63no off 41 balls): "Our full focus was on tonight and now on to Italy in two days' time.
"T20 is a high-risk game and things can go against you so you have to keep trying hard and luckily today was my day [after a few low scores]. You expect carnage in India but there was a bit of spin and hold in Mumbai so it was nice to get on a good wicket here in Kolkata tonight.
"My plan was to play straight and then pull it away when they Scotland bowlers went short. You have to take your match-up down and back yourself."
England captain Harry Brook: "I am just glad we got over the line. Scotland were getting ahead of us at times but we managed to drag it back with the ball.
"Tom Banton was awesome with the bat and has slid in nicely at No 4. He looks to take down the spinners and it came off today. We knew it was a decent wicket and wasn't going to change and it was a fast outfield as well. We didn't need to take unnecessary risks."
Scotland captain Richie Berrington: "The difference was probably partnerships in the middle overs. We fought back well after losing early wickets but needed one of myself or Tom Bruce to go on for longer and get that extra 20 or 30 runs.
"Our execution was slightly off but we know we have the players to do well in that phase of the game. We still had belief if we could execute with the ball and put England under pressure and we showed that. This hurts quite a lot and reinforces the message that if we execute our best skills we can put anyone under pressure."
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