Bengaluru October 27 2023 : England’s pursuit of a title-retaining 50-over World Cup triumph is all but dead and the team are copping a hammering out of the United Kingdom.
Barring a mathematical miracle, England will not advance from the round-robin stage to the finals after suffering an eight-wicket drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka on Thursday night.
The English were skittled for just 156 runs and the Sri Lankans took only 25.4 overs to hunt down the total, which they did with eight wickets in hand in Bengaluru.
England have won just one of their five matches and are languishing in ninth on the table, ahead of only the Netherlands.
UK Guardian reporter Simon Burnton laid out a grim analogy.
“After a fortnight in freefall this was supposed to be the moment England’s bungee rope pulled taut and they started flying upwards,” Burnton wrote.
“It turned out there were further depths to plumb, and with India next on Sunday they might be a long way from rock bottom yet.”
Burnton was also scathing of the outcome of England’s line-up changes, which saw Reece Topley, Gus Atkinson and Harry Brook replace Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone and Mooen Ali.
England hoped to deepen their batting order and strengthen their spin department.
“They made three changes for last Saturday’s thrashing by South Africa and there were three more here, with the aim — laughable in hindsight — of bolstering their batting,” Burnton wrote.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan ripped the side on X.
“This is turning out to be one of the worst World Cup campaigns in English cricket history … and we have had some stinkers.”
Lawrence Booth from the UK Daily Mail wrote the English were “mathematically … clinging on by their fingernails”.
“By any other measure, they are out — not just beaten by a motivated Sri Lankan side led by the former England coach Chris Silverwood, but spanked, pulverised and humiliated,” Booth added.
UK Telegraph reporter Tim Wigmore noted England’s fearfulness.
“After all the talk of reverting to aggressive cricket under pressure — a constant refrain from players and coaches after each defeat — an undercurrent of timidity ran through England’s loss here,” Wigmore wrote.
For all bar the English, perhaps the most entertaining moment of the side’s ugly night saw tail-ender Adil Rashid run out at the non-striker’s end.
Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis gathered the ball down the leg side, slipped off a glove and threw down the stumps at the bowler’s end.
It reawakened memories of Alex Carey stumping Jonny Bairstow during this year’s Lord’s Test as the England batter mindlessly wandered out of his crease when the ball was still in play.
“That is dopey from Adil Rashid, and absolutely brilliant from Sri Lanka’s captain [Mendis],” said former England batter Ian Ward in commentary.
England captain Jos Buttler said after the match the team’s tournament had been “incredibly tough” and “incredibly disappointing”.
“We’ve been short of our best by a very long way,” he said.
“I’m disappointed for myself and the boys that we’ve not given a good account of ourselves.”
Buttler also admitted there was “no clear answer”.
“If there was one golden nugget that we’re not doing then we’d pick that up.”
England will next meet India in Lucknow on Sunday night.
