England Throw it Away

Less than 24 hours ago I predicted both upsets in the T20 World Cup and that England would almost certainly be unscathed before the Ashes by this three week tournament, regardless of the results. With the former confirmed by the Netherlands last ball victory in the dusk at the home of cricket, there is more room to speculate on the latter.

The loss itself is an embarrassment, right up there with the poorest results in English cricket history but the manner in which England went about their task after Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright had given them an excellent start. As a partnership they have a nice balance between deft grace and brute force and in their opening stand set the base for England to score anything up to 200 with wickets in the bank. However, Ravi Bopara threw his wicket away and from then on England looked to be completely without a plan. An inability to clear the boundary clearly frustrated and England's innings petered out with a whimper.

Even so, 162 should have been sufficient for a side whose bowling and fielding have been electric thus far this summer. Anderson and Sidebottom showed that quality in their spells, as to a certain extent did Broad, but the fielding at times beggared belief. For a team which boasts so many outstanding individual fielders the number of fumbles and wayward throws were inexplicable. It was summed up by the last ball overthrow which gifted the victory to Holland. Make no mistake, if England hadn't been so intent on literally throwing runs to the Dutch then we would be discussing a poor victory rather than an embarrassing defeat.

Oddly the major concern isn't the result. Granted it is never pleasant to lose to largely amateur team but it is the manner of defeat which will have put the biggest strain on the players mentally. Another show as poor as that against Pakistan will not only see the hosts out of the tournament, but will also surely effect the confidence of the Test players involved. England need to regroup quickly, not only for the sake of the tournament, but to ensure the relevant individuals aren't still in shock come the first ball in Cardiff.