Yuk

Oh dear. That wasn’t in the script. At the start of play everyone was full of predictions. Will we score 500 this time? How much will we win by? Will it be all over by lunchtime?

The question nobody asked, of course, is IF England would win. Pakistan have some very useful players and everyone should know they’re at their most dangerous when every man, his dog, and the fleas on the dog’s back write them off.

Unfortunately, however, I don’t think we can put this one down to complacency – even though Pakistan had lost their previous eleven games. That’s right. Eleven. E.L.E.V.E.N. The brutal truth of the matter is that England were simply outplayed by the better side on the day.

Had we lost due to complacency then there would have been a very obvious silver lining. Everyone would’ve said “this is the wake up call we needed”. It has always been pretty obvious that we’d lose at some point. Therefore, perhaps it’s a good thing to get a defeat out of the way early on?

However, there was something quite worrying about this loss. The mentality wasn’t quite right but it wasn’t due to a lack of intensity. On the contrary; I thought we looked too intense. There was no joy. In fact, we looked like a right bunch of misery-gutses. Players were frowning and occasionally scowling at each other. We just weren’t ourselves.

The bowling wasn’t quite up to the mark today and the fielding was pretty poor too. And that’s very unusual for this particular England side. We bowled 11 wides in total. Eleven. E.L.E.V.E.N. Plus there were a whopping 13 misfields. Thirteen. T.H.I.R … etc. You get the idea.

So why did this happen? Just a bad day at the races or is the pressure of being favourites getting to us? If it’s the latter then things aren’t exactly going to improve as a result of this defeat. The next game is now crucial. Lose that and we’ll find ourselves in a rather tight spot.

One wonders, in hindsight, whether Liam Plunkett might have made a difference? I know this is clutching at straws a bit, as Mark Wood bowled decently, but there’s something reassuring about the big man’s presence. A few mid-innings wickets might well have made a difference on this occasion. I guess we’ll never know.

In the meantime the players will just have to lick their wounds and pull themselves together. And nine of them ought to apologise to Joe Root and Jos Buttler, who both made excellent hundreds but somehow found themselves on the losing side. When was the last time two England batsmen made tons but the team lost? I can’t recall that happening before.

On a somewhat positive note, I don’t think this affects our chances of winning the World Cup too much. England have won 50 and lost 20 (approximately) since the last World Cup so we do tend to lose one in every three games (or so). In fact, one might say we were due a defeat.

The main thing is that we win the next game, get the proverbial show back on the road, and then try to squeeze in another strategic loss before the knock out phase! Preferably in the game before the real pressure cricket begins. If that happens we’ll have a great statistical chance of winning the trophy.

Of course, we’ve actually got to win a few more games and qualify before we get to that point. Are you confident we’ll do that? Personally I am – as long as we chill out a bit. There’s little point in having a first class culture if the players get subsumed by doubt and team spirit becomes suppressed by a fear of failure.

James Morgan

40 comments

  • Quite often when you put people on a pedestal it’s a long way to fall off. The press, England management and to some degree the players have been doing this. They didn’t play bad today and two centuries suggest that, but Pakistan being the enigma they are were just better on the day. England would be better to shut up a bit and just let the cricket do the talking, lose the next one and they’ll be in a bit of trouble I think.

  • I wonder if Jason Roy’s drop will prove as significant as Matt Kvesic’s in the rugby final last Satuerday?

    • Pakistan dropped catches as well. Root was on 10 when Babar dropped him at slip (and that wasn’t the only one).

      Anyone else wondering about the fitness of Woakes and Rashid? They’ve looked a bit under par in both matches to me.

  • England have generally chased really well, but I wonder if the added pressure of the World Cup means they should bat first if they win the toss. I actually said (unpublished comment on Cricinfo before the game) that Pakistan’s recent poor form compared to England meant they were favourites. I’m now claiming that wasn’t tongue in cheek!

    I still think you can divide the teams into 3 “groups”:

    Likely to get to the semi-finals: England, India, Australia
    Might get to the Semis: Pakistan, West Indies, New Zealand (New Zealand most likely if i have to call it)
    Likely to go home: South Africa (batting too fragile), Afghanistan (ditto), Bangladesh (seamers not good enough, though they impressed against SA), Sri Lanka (poor at present).

    • I think you are under-rating NZ, James. I’d have them as 2nd or 3rd favourites – certainly above Australia.

      • You may be right Muffin. I have some doubts about the finishing power, but the top 4 looks good, the bowling is good, and well suited to English conditions, and Kane is probably the most astute captain around. i have to admit I’d be delighted to see them beat Australia!

      • Just to clarify that James (above) is not me, the editor, but a separate person. I often wonder if people think James is me. In fact, I’ve often read James’s comments myself and thought ‘hang on, did I write this’?! :-)

      • So would I. I reckon they have good enough batsmen and overall a better bowling team for England than Australia.

  • James, you are correct in saying “that England were simply outplayed by the better side on the day” It doesn’t matter how many 300’s, 400’s or even 500’s the team has scored in the last year or two, or how settled the team is, it can all come undone on one day. From a tournament point of view, it is great to see teams like Pakistan and Bangladesh win games, it adds interest and stops things becoming boring when the top four teams (whoever they are) churn out win after win. Go the underdog !!!

  • Don’t think anybody should read too much into yesterday’s loss. Nobody is going to go through to the knockout stage undefeated. Jason Roy’s dropped catch and his missed run out were the fine margins that decided a win or lose. It was a brave chase by England, not gone unnoticed by the other teams either. However…………….if teams lose two and they will find themselves in a bit of bother and a truckload of pressure, in particular England because they are at home. Look at South Africa, probably thought they were a half decent chance against England- lost. Against Bangers, they knew that was a tap on the head – lost. Now they find themselves struggling to say in the tournament and the one team you don’t want to be playing against when your back is against the wall, blindfolded at dawn, India! I believe they will lose against India and the tournament is over for them and we will bid a thank you and goodbye to Amla, du Plessis, Tahir and Steyn, all great servants of SA. I always believed they were the most overrated team anyway, so I’m not surprised by their current position. England have 4 tough games ahead – WI, Australia, India and NZ, lose two of those and England may struggle to get into the top 4. India and Australia loom as the potential deal breakers and a loss against those two will have NZ potentially putting the stake through the heart. I still think England will make it through, they are still the team to beat.
    Speaking of SA v India, any reason why India’s first game of the tournament is SA’s 3rd? Are the dark arts of India’s power in the halls of the ICC at play here giving them a supposive advantage of added rest?

    • Doug, apparently the BCCI insisted they needed a break post IPL. The “formal” Big 3 arrangement might be dead (thankfully) , but they still carry a big stick to ICC

  • Having watched the game from start to finish, apart from the unusually bad fielding, the bowling was the real problem. I don’t understand how someone who (presumably) practices hours a day at getting the ball to land in the right place ends up repeatedly putting the ball in the wrong place.

    It really should not be that difficult for an international cricketer to land a ball within an inch or two of where it needs to be – after all, ten pin bowlers manage to put the ball in a small pocket from roughly the same distance as a cricket pitch and certain bowlers train by trying to regularly hit a shoe placed on the pitch at yorker length.

    It must surely be all about repeating the action (as in golf) so that one doesn’t need to think about the physical actions required? Bouncer needed – OK I remember how to do that, Yorker needed – I remember that too.

    One of the problems that England do seem to have is the need for variation. Having bowled three balls in exactly the right place and yielded few runs they suddenly seem to think that they have to change things, bowl a mid-length bouncer and get slapped away for four!

    That was what was happening yesterday – definitely too many half length bouncers which ended up arriving at just over waist height allowing the batsman to pull them for boundaries.

    With the fielding problems – not including the dropped catch and missed run out opportunities – and the bad balls (including the eleven wides) I reckon we gave away around forty to fifty runs. Add to that the runs that could have been saved if we had taken one or two of the wicket chances that came our way and you are probably talking about nearly one hundred runs.

    Yes I know that if Roy had taken the catch then the remaining Pakistan batsman would have possibly batted differently but eleven wides plus runs scored off the eleven extra balls plus four overthrows plus all the runs scored off the pies that were bowled add up to a lot.

    The real problem is that as well as Pakistan played they are probably not on the level of India or Australia so if we bowl and field like that against either of them in a semi final – if we manage to get that far – then we will be out and once again the dream will have been all hype.

    England bowlers don’t seem to bowl well under pressure apart from Curran who seems to have a decent mix available to him for the final overs. Why he hasn’t yet played is anyone’s guess and Captain Morgan, who made a bif mistake when not batting first yesterday is suddenly under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

    • Joel Garner used to put an old sixpence at yorker length on middle and leg for bowling practice.

      • That’s why no one seems to bowl Yorkers any more, modern day bowlers haven’t access to old sixpences. I wondered why they’d gone out of fashion. Guess as their equivalent would be the 2p, which is bigger would explain why we get so many low full tosses.

        • Use a 5p. 6ft 9in bowlers who can bowl accurately at 150k would also help. To be fair, if I had to pick a “retired all time XI” to play ODI’s (based on ODI performances*), I’d have the Big Bird in it to bowl the death overs (along with Wasim Akram – try hitting those 2!). I’ve tried to pick players in roughly the right places to make a team. Full XI in approximate batting order (for fun/comment/abuse): Tendulkar, Gilchrist (w), Ponting, V Richards, Lara, Botham, I Khan (c), R Hadlee, Akram, Warne, Garner.

          *This means I can’t have several players would would probably have been OK at ODI cricket, including Bradman, Sobers, BA Richards, Trumper, Procter.

          • Not much to disagree with there, but wouldn’t it have been great to have seen previous generation players in their pomp. You didn’t put Jessop in there though. He’s got some phenomenal if inconsistent stats. Even Grace was impresssed enough apparantly to say ‘I think we’ve got something here’ after seeming him for the first time.
            Would have also been great to see players like Bailey trying to adapt to one day mode. Tavare managed ok, so why not. Root adapts his style without compromising it. I reckon the likes of May, Graveney, Barrington and Cowdrey could have done the same, without the quick singles maybe, but they can all play quickies, having come through against the likes of Lindwall, Miller, Truman, Tyson, Hall and Griffiths and this on uncovered pitches. Garner and Ambrose particularly would still present a unique problem with their bowling hand over the top of the sight screen.
            On the bowling front Underwood has to be a contender as a one off. Difficult to get down the pitch to him as he pins you in the crease bowling from wide and spearing the ball in at the stumps. Shame about the batting and fielding though. Maybe the chain smoking didn’t help.

            • I did limit myself to a team based on ODI performance which rules out most of the players you mentioned! I would probably add Trumper and Frank Woolley to that list. Keith Miller would have to play!

  • I watched the match from start to finish and thought it was a great spectacle. Respect to Pakistan for a fine all-round performance. England will comeback and should qualify for the knock out stages but Morgan and the selectors will have some big decisions to make in choosing the bowling attack for the next few matches.

  • Jason Roy had “just one of those days”. Dropped catches, misfields, failed run-outs, arguing with the umpire when dismissed (what was that about?).

    He won’t have one of those again in the series I doubt.

    Pakistan seemed adept at picking out the slowest fielder (Bairstow) – the ball seemed to follow him everywhere.

    All in all – a bad day at the office.

    NEXT!

    • No way is Bairstow the slowest fielder, he’s one of our quickest! But agree about it being just a bad day at the office

  • Given the respective recent histories of these 2 sides I would say this was most definitely in the script. We can’t go on chasing 300+ and expect to keep winning. This match was always an acccident waiting to happen for us. Pakistan can up the anti and win tournaments, we have yet to prove that. On a good pitch Morgan will always bat first as the side prefers to chase. Once again Roy showed his vulnerability to spin and the team as a whole never looked comfortable against a welter of it. Their seamers at last started to show their true potential and on that performance they could have beaten anybody. Even their fielding was decent. We played well enough to beat most sides and ran them pretty close, but they deserved a win. This tournament is now boiling up nicely and if the rain stays away could be a classic. You can’t take your ‘A’ game onto the field every time and our ‘B’ game is still good enough to make a contest so ‘nil desperandum’ I reckon in the round robin format means you can afford to lose about 3 games before qualifying for the knockout stages is out of your hands, so the pressure is on against a decent Bangladesh on Saturday, just as it should be. We want competitive games, not runaways.
    Oh and by the way James, stop going on about players showing joy. They are professionals doing their job, they’re not on holiday, joy is retrospective for the most part in professional sport. A wicket or a ton usually brings it, but that’s about the best you get during a game. Look at the Liverpool players mood change after the final whistle last Saturday, apart from the goals there was only stress and doing a job during the game. When you’re trying to concentrate it’s difficult to smile, laugh and joke, they’re a distraction.

  • I’m not overly worried about the loss but I do think it illustrates what we already know – namely that England’s bowling isn’t that flash, and if you combine that with a poor day in the field then you end up with a total that even our batting unit can’t chase down.
    Plunkett’s wicket taking in the middle overs speaks for itself and I do think we missed that yesterday. What we also missed was someone to realise that we were bowling too short.
    I do wonder if batting first and putting the other side under huge scoreboard pressure might make our attack more potent but the template clearly is to chase and you can’t argue with the results.
    A bad day at the office certainly – but also one that highlighted some of the weaknesses of this England side.

  • We certainly should not use the unusually poor England fielding as one of the reasons for defeat – because Pakistan were even worse in that department, even by their standards. Ignoring the drops, their failure to even make meaningful attempts at several reachable catches was startling. And both sides showed one side of their fielding which I try to drill out of colts time and again; if it is obvious that the batsman is making his ground do not shy at the stumps, there is nothing to gain and everything to lose. Both sides took shys even when the batsmen made his ground before the ball left the fielder’s hands. ………Which takes us to the keepers. I thought it was impossible to see a worse international keeper than Buttler, but Sarfaraz made a good attempt. It was less his handling of the ball (Buttler’s problem) and more the fact that he seemed reluctant to get up to the stumps to receive the ball from his fielders, even when they were taking a shy. He simply looks slow and out of condition.

    A very entertaining match with some good batting and bowling, but it can be used as an text book study of how not to field for years to come.

  • Let’s put this into perspective. People have been crying out for a tight game and this was reasonably tight and certainly not one-sided. Cricket, more than any game I know, is no respecter of form. England had on off day. Pakistani had a good one. Nobody died. Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring.

    • Agreed. England were sloppy in the field and I think there was complacency. I don’t care what’s being said but after the SA game against a side that has lost 11 in a row, that England beat 4-0 and were rolled by WI, they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t believe a little bit of the hype…..

      Hopefully it’s a wake up call rather than a drop off in form, and better it happens now rather than the business end.

  • Some of England’s players look decidedly undercooked. Moeen Ali’s batting looks a shadow of its former self. But with Root and Buttler in such form it should hardly matter. And let’s face it, 334 chasing is not a bad effort at all. I personally have never shared in the belief that England will win the tournament. Too many things can go wrong and I don’t really think the bowling attack is good enough. My money’s on the West Indies. You read it first here!

  • Du Plessis had twice put the opponents in, v England and then v Bangladesh, and SA failed to chase 300+ totals in both these games. I was listening on TMS, and just had a strong feeling that Morgan should have batted first. Even with Pakistan’s good bowling attack, we probably would have posted a 300+ score and then Pakistan would have been the team under pressure to chase. Morgan backs his men to chase down just about anything, but chasing at an ICC tournament under pressure is much harder than in an ODI series. Given Pakistan’s excellent record in ICC tournaments when it really matters, it was to be expected that they would play better than they had done in the ODI series, indeed they may even have held back a little in that series. Their batsmen scored plenty of runs in the ODI series, confirming my suspicion that our bowling attack is not great. I think India, Australia and New Zealand have better bowling attacks, the Windies pace attack sounds dangerous when they get it right.
    I hope Curran gets a game soon, commentators like his competitive spirit and he could have more control in his bowling. Stokes had a good game v SA and yet his bowling didn’t sound so good in this game, is he fully fit ? Archer was worryingly expensive in this game. It sounded as if Wood bowled well at times, but lacked consistency. Woakes at least took some fine catches in the deep ! Apparently it is the first time in World Cup history that two batsmen have scored centuries for one team but still gone on to lost the match. Bairstow and Roy aren’t enjoying the tactic of starting with spin, employed by Du Plessis and Sarfraz to good effect. Great that Root and Buttler are in fine form, but even during their stand, I never got the feeling they were going to get the 349 needed. Pakistan were bowling too well for that and even Buttler was struggling to hit as many boundaries as he often does. Credit to Pakistan for rousing themselves after being routed by WI in their opening game. Their unpredictability is fascinating.
    Given England’s historically awful record in global one day tournaments, I have never believed we will win this World Cup. If we need six wins to get to the semis, I am struggling to feel confident of that. I would expect us to beat Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh but have my doubts when it comes to Australia, India, New Zealand and Windies, who have better bowling attacks in my view plus good batting. I just don’t think we cope well with real pressure. The white ball and ICC pitches tend to negate any home advantage, and the Pakistan fans yesterday made it like an away game for England. I reckon it could be a real struggle to get to the semis, unless we have a situation in which all the different teams are taking points off each other. I also get nervous when all the ex players and commentators talk of an England victory. If I had to pick a winner it would be either Australia or India or New Zealand. Let’s hope England can prove me wrong, I would love to see us finally break our World Cup hoodoo.

    • If this squad can’t do it it’s difficult to see us doing it atall in the foreseeable future, a bit like our footie team.

    • Trent Boult was saying that the white ball is moving a bit more than usual possibly due to using a different lacquer. A good development if it brings bowlers more into the game. That 500 may not happen.

  • SA are dire and have been for years and yet, people still crow about players innings vs SA or when in SA.. quite simply since about 2013 ish they’ve not been a force overly

    Their sporting set up is rotten and the evidence is the lack of quality coming through

    • Pardon? England have Kolpakked an entire Test bowling attack in the last three years, and that includes the best ODI bowler from South Africa as well.

      The batting is atrocious, but even then when someone half decent comes through he is Kolpakked as well.

      And where is the English bowling quality coming through?

      • England aren’t all that either, especially outside a few white ball hitters.. bugger so red ball and bugger all bowling.

        SA are just a few years ahead of England’s in the decline to come

  • Not that I’ve seen much of the last few games, but the scores and reports suggest the pitches to be a bit more demanding, and not shirt fronts. If so England may need to be careful against the Bangladeshi spinners on Saturday. I note that teams are opening with spin, and it’s seems a likely way to break the Roy/Bairstow opening flyer; neither of which like spin early on, especially Roy.

    • I fear that game may be a wash out, looking at the weather forecast this morning

  • Pity the poor fools who picked the wrong match to watch today….

    Bangladesh are a great watch and suddenly Saturday looks rather interesting. NZ look short of batting (especially with Williamson looking horribly out of touch) and might have to bring Nicholls in for Neesham (although that leaves them only with very part-time options if one of the front-line bowlers is getting carted).

    • Yes looked like the best of the two World Cups. But I was watching a cracker of a game developing at Guildford, Surrey vs Somerset. A real fight back by Surrey with an outside chance of a win today.

    • Looking forward to West Indies v Aus today (obviously, I’m supporting WI). Hopefully a big one from the Boss.

  • Sadly not but a really good game nevertheless. Looks to me like any one of 6 or possibly 7 (if you include Bangladesh) could win it which is great for the tournament. Also the advantage of having it in England is that all the teams get support.

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