Bangladesh finally put an end to England’s misery in this World Cup by defeating them in an exciting game that ended this morning (my time). England won the toss and sent Bangladesh in and did well to restrict them to 275/7 off their 50 overs. As we have seen, a first innings score of 300 has become the minimum target, with 350 preferred on these batting-friendly pitches. Bangladesh had scored only 197/4 at the 40-over mark, and while a century by Mahmudullah and 89 by Mushfiqur Rahim pushed the score up, they could not step on the gas enough in the last ten overs as the England bowlers restricted them to just 78 more runs even though they had wickets in hand.
England should have been able to reach this score especially on the smallish Adelaide ground where the boundaries are closer but they kept losing wickets at a steady rate and that hampered their ability to score quickly enough. But at the 45 over mark they were 229/6, needing another 47 off 30 balls. With four wickets in hand, that seemed eminently achievable with Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes batting well. But Buttler’s departure at 238 followed immediately by a controversial close run-out of Chris Jordan set them back. Woakes and Stuart Broad fought back, helped by Tamim Iqbal dropping an easy catch offered by Woakes with the score at 256 leaving them needing just 20 runs off 15 balls,. But they could not exploit that chance to get to them to victory and they were all out for 260, 16 runs short of the target with 9 balls to spare.
This is not the first time that Bangladesh have beaten England in a World Cup so this does not qualify as a major upset, especially with England seeming so vulnerable throughout the tournament. But it is undoubtedly a big win for them and worthy of celebrations, since it is just the second time they have made the quarterfinals, the last time being in 2007.
With this loss, England is eliminated and now the team has to face the wrath of its own media and fans who can be ruthless. I feel sorry for the English players. This kind of piling on does not really do much good and can result in too dramatic shifts in policy rather than a focus on steady development. It also serves to demoralize players and create a breeding ground for the team dramas that have been endemic recently. They have a crop of good young players (Joe Root, James Taylor, Moeen Ali, Buttler, Woakes, Jordan) and the administration should use them as the nucleus around which to build a strong future team.
It was less than 2 years ago that Australia were a shambles. People were piling on and players demoralized. At the time Michael Clarke (the captain) was reported to have said Shane Watson was a cancer. There were lots of anonymous leaks and players were sent to do homework which Watson refused and was sent home, then a match later reinstated. Anyway, The coach was changed and players given a bit of freedom. Clarke and Watson get along fine, a few young players were blooded, and we win the Ashes (at home and with a rejuventated Johnson, which helps) and are one of the favoured teams in the World Cup….
In short, it can turn around very quickly. England do have good players. As Morgan (English Captain wishing he was playing for native Ireland right now) said, they didn’t play as a team. The easiest ‘fix’ is to get rid of the coach, as Australia did. Although that often doesn’t fix it. The players just need to be supported and as you say Mano, not be beaten into the ground.
Is Morgan Irish? I knew his first name was spelled Eoin and not Owen and thus he was likely not English but could not figure out if he was a Scot or Welsh or Irish.
I just watched video of Jordan’s run out. I don’t believe he was out -- I think his bat clearly runs along it’s shoulder on the ground (which apart from been clearly the case is made more obvious by the pressure on the ground twisting it) and that was a bad decision by the third umpire.
I’m told they reviewed it some 30 odd times which suggests to me a rule of thumb to apply -- if you can’t make a decision in 10 reviews it’s clearly doubtful and the benefit should be give to the batter.
fentex,
I agree that in cases of doubt, the benefit should go to the batter but this is not the first time in this tournament that that rule has not been applied.
Morgan is from Dublin. I think a fair few of the Irish play country cricket. Which is good for them, experience wise. England will snaffle the odd one for their team, such as Morgan and Boyd Rankin. Ed Joyce has gone full circle and played for Ireland, England and is back playing for Ireland again.
Regarding the current match. India put the clamps on what could have been a big Irish score. The Irish could handle the seamers, but not the spinners. Looks like a real trump card as the Aussies (apart from a fit Clark and Smith) struggle against spin. South Africa couldn’t score against India. India are back in form and timing their run in this tournament very well…
I think for no-ball calls, say after a catch has been taken, in this World Cup the directive is to give the bowler the benefit of the doubt. If it looks like any part of his foot was behind the line or it’s in doubt, the ball is legal. The reasoning is that with the short (mostly in NZ) boundaries, true pitches, no more that 3 players outside the circle, and perceived advantage of the large light-weight bats that the bowlers were on a hiding to nothing, so they need all the help they can get. Perhaps that’s extended to run-out decisions like Jordan’s? Give the bowling team the benefit of the doubt?
So i’l be getting my coat then.
England selectors and management claimed that they would solve all our problems by selecting short form specialists but then shackled them into playing in a defensive test style.
Good luck to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the knock outs 🙂
Except England didn’t pick specialist ODI players in the end -- they turned to Ballance at the start of the tournament when he hadn’t played a ODI since September and then expected him to bat at 3 when he goes in at 5 for Yorkshire…………………..not to mention that the side is filled with classical test match batsman -- not a bad thing in a test match but stupid in a modern ODI.
This England team are over reliant on on statistics and data analysis as opposed to living in the real world -- they work towards a score of 300 being a match winning total when all the evidence suggests otherwise.