Mumbai: England lost their second consecutive game at the world cup against Australia on Tuesday. They started out as the favourites of the tournament, but are now dangling by a thin thread for the fourth spot on the table. Here is a summary of the factors that led to the hosts’ defeat.
Bad start
While England won the toss and chose to bowl against Australia, they let the Kangaroos get too far with the openers. It wasn’t until the 33rd over that the England bowlers managed to get a choke hold on Australia. Flying at 173/1, Australia were brought down to 285/7, losing their next six wickets in quick succession.
However they still had to chase a target of 285, since the damage had already been done by the time England’s bowlers actually started to put up a fight.
Too short, too wide
England pacers Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood were guilty of bowling short or wide balls more than they should have, giving room for heavy hitters like Aaron Finch and David Warner to freely move their arms for big hits and boundaries.
Though 285 wasn’t the hardest of chases, the fact that it was against an Australian team with bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff meant England had to be in their A-game in the innings that followed.
Poor batting performance
Set for a decently high chase, England suffered a massive hit right in the beginning of the second innings when opener James Vince got bowled by Behrendorff, going out for a duck in just his second ball.
Subsequently England’s big hitters Joe Root and skipper Eoin Morgan failed to perform as well, going out at single digit scores of eight and four runs respectively. It was rather the middle order of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes who managed to score the runs the openers missed. But it still wasn’t enough. Stokes was the only player to score 89, while all the other batsmen who made it to two-digit scores were fizzled out at between 25 to 27 runs.
Supreme Australian fielding
Unfortunately for England, the entire Australian fielding was in supreme form on Tuesday. When England were all-out for 221, seven of the 10 fallen wickets were catches, most of which were taken quite comfortably. It almost seemed like Australia knew where the ball was going before it was even hit.
Pacer Mitchel Starc was responsible for four English wickets, taking his overall wicket tally to 19, the highest of the tournament so far, while Behrendorff took a five-wicket haul.
England’s probability of staying in the top four went further down after two consecutive defeats now. The team must now win at least one, and ideally both, of their remaining games against New Zealand and India, both of which have been unbeaten in the tournament so far.
