England’s Lanka loss worse than Kiwi crushing: Atherton

Tuesday, 3 March 2015 01:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON (Reuters): England may have been utterly humiliated in their second World Cup pool match against co-hosts New Zealand but Sunday’s nine-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka was much more damaging, according to former England captain Mike Atherton. Tim Southee claimed 7-33 and skipper Brendon McCullum blasted the fastest half-century in tournament history as the Kiwis shot out England for 123 and romped home in the 13th over in a ridiculously one-sided match in Wellington. By comparison, Eoin Morgan and his team put up a better batting display against Sri Lanka, posting 309-6, even though it was not enough to avert a nine-wicket defeat. “In some ways, this was a more damaging defeat than the one against New Zealand,” Atherton wrote in the Times newspaper. “It was possible to park that match out of the mind: an aberration, a one-off calamity, and against one of the most fancied and confident teams in the tournament,” the former opener said of the earlier defeat. “This was worse. It lasted longer and therefore England’s defects were plain to see, and against a team who most would have said are slightly past their best and unfancied.” England, who registered their only win in four outings against lowly Scotland, can still progress to the quarter-finals of a tournament they have never won but the weaknesses are too glaring for Atherton. “...(Paceman) James Anderson looks a shadow of his potent self, unable to swing the white Kookaburra as others have done. This looks, at the moment, like a one-day tournament too far for him,” he said. “Not that Stuart Broad is any more incisive: between them in almost 60 overs they have taken just four wickets at 92 runs apiece. And this was supposed to be England’s strong suit.” Morgan and his team face Bangladesh in their next Pool A match on 9 March and Atherton, who played 115 tests in the 1989-2001 period, advocated a top order re-jig. “Alex Hales must be given a go at the top of the order alongside (Moeen) Ali, with Ian Bell moving to first drop,” he said, contrasting England’s match to the slugfest between New Zealand and Australia that took place in Auckland a day earlier. “As England’s World Cup hopes hang by a thread, doing nothing is not an option. If Australia and New Zealand gave us a glimpse of the future this weekend, it is past failings that are staring England in the face again.”

Changes demanded after England’s latest World Cup flop

Reuters: The incoming chairman of England’s cricket board has flagged a review of the team’s approach to the one-day format after a third crushing loss at the World Cup. England slumped to a nine-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka on Sunday, leaving their hopes of making the World Cup’s quarter-finals hanging by a thread. Having beaten only Scotland in their first four pool matches, a loss to lowly Bangladesh or a wash-out

of the match in Adelaide on March 9 would end their tournament. “In ODIs we have underperformed. In tests we are on the up, we have some fantastic young players coming through and have got to have some faith in them,” Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, told the BBC. “We have to have a strategy and in one-day internationals we have to improve. “The main thing is, you look at the World Cup and it’s very aggressive early on, are our players as aggressive as the others? We need to talk about those things.” England have performed poorly at World Cups since their run to the final in 1992 but have appeared especially stodgy and predictable at the current tournament. Having set Sri Lanka 310 to win at Wellington Regional Stadium, their bowlers managed to take just a single wicket as their opponents reeled in the total with overs to spare. Their pace attack, all right-arm seamers, have been treated with contempt by opposing batsmen while number three Gary Ballance has scored a total of 46 runs from his four matches in the tournament. Despite that, selectors have stuck with the same misfiring lineup throughout. England’s under-fire captain Eoin Morgan dodged questions on whether changes would be made for the Bangladesh game on Monday. Former players have called for a shakeup of England’s attack and said the team is too hung up on statistics, citing the plodding middle overs of England’s batting innings against Sri Lanka and Morgan’s insistence their total was above par at the Wellington ground. “From what I’ve heard over the last year or two, that culture has been driven by premeditated plans and statistics when it should be gut feeling and instinct,” former captain Nasser Hussain wrote in the Daily Mail. Former England spinner Graeme Swann added: “It was a very self-congratulatory 310, everyone was saying ‘brilliant’. These days that’s about average and not a great score.”

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