England suffered a nine-wicket obliteration at the hands of Sri Lanka in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 match at Wellington, thus losing the third match out of the four played so far in the tournament. Devarchit Varma wonders if there is any more humiliation left for England in the ongoing World Cup.
Ever since the International Cricket Council (ICC) dropped the bomb of making ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 tournament a 10-team affair, the cricket fraternity has been very vocal about the move. The bone of contention is not only the spirited performances by each of the Associates playing in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, but also the quality of cricket being played by some of the top sides. Among these, England have invariably featured at the top in most of the angry reactions, with the cricket fraternity questioning their eligibility for walking in directly into the top 10. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Pool-wise Team Standings
Indeed, the cricket fraternity is not wrong. For far too long England have enjoyed the respect that the top sides in world get in the 50-over format but they have done very little to justify it. Having concentrated all their energies in the past 4-5 years to excel in Test cricket, England continue to struggle in one-day cricket and the defeats such as the one suffered against Sri Lanka make their situation even more worse. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: SCHEDULE & MATCH DETAILS
During their chase, Sri Lanka were in genuine pressure of chasing a target in excess of 300 and England’s bowling attack is lethal enough (at least on paper) to destroy the best of the batting attacks. Kumar Sangakkara took innumerable risks while running between the wickets, and resultantly there were many throws directed at the stumps. But none of the fielders could hit the wickets even once! There was no run-out chance either. Cricket Blog: England vs Sri Lanka
England have a good bowling attack, but to keep bowling punishable deliveries to quality batsmen is absolutely daft. Not once did England rethink their strategy of bowling short to Sangakkara, who kept pulling almost each of those and continued to get easy boundaries. Even James Anderson, the smartest of bowlers, bowled as many as two deliveries to Sangakkara which were screaming to be hit on a trot, and the legend had absolutely no qualms in collecting easy runs. Top 10 wicketkeepers in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Joe Root was the man who did all the hard work with the bat for England in their innings. It was his monumental effort of 121 that helped England go past 300, but it was Root who wrapped the return gift to Sri Lanka. Early in his innings, Root was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene and he went on to score a century. And then, early in his innings, Lahiru Thirimanne was dropped by Root himself, and the Thirimanne went on to score a match-winning century. Today, Root had the first-hand experience of ‘catches win matches’ fundamental, and he learned the lesson the hard way. England vs Sri Lanka, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Pool A match, Photo gallery
England never looked like they will be able to take any of the Sri Lankan batsmen. Tillakaratne Dilshan walked off in surprise as to why the ball stayed back a little and did not come at the pace he anticipated. Apart from this, not a single chance England produced that could serve their purpose. Moeen Ali looked no less than a schoolboy when he failed to grab a chance to get rid of Thirimanne at 99 and deny him a match-winning hundred. Top 10 fielders in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
After the ‘annihilation’, former cricketer Graeme Swann was quick to highlight that England’s approach is ‘out of date’.
A positive thing that can come of this world cup is that maybe the top brass will realise just how out of date our approach is.
Fair enough. But who will address the dropped catches, fielders failing to break the stumps even once and the feared duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad not even falling close their shadows? After all, it is England who have had the best preparation time and build-up to ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Top 10 batsmen in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
(Devarchit Varma is a reporter with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)
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