England got here into the ODI World Cup because the defending champion and was additionally thought-about one of many favourites on this version of the event. However, a fortnight and three defeats later, a spot within the semifinals appears troublesome for Jos Buttler’s males.
And, after struggling a 229-run defeat in opposition to South Africa on the Wankhede Stadium, the England captain admitted that the highway to the last-four can be ‘incredibly difficult’. “We haven’t left ourselves any margin from this point in. But we’ll keep the belief,” Buttler mentioned.
England is presently positioned on the ninth spot with simply two factors in its kitty. Though fairly a couple of mathematical calculations can nonetheless take it to the semifinals, Buttler believes that there’s no room for error. “It certainly leaves us in a tough position. There’s no room for error from here on in. That’s going to be incredibly tough, but we’ll sit down and go again,” Buttler mentioned, including: “That’s all you can do in this situation…”
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England suffered a shock defeat in opposition to Afghanistan in Delhi final week and hoped to bounce again in opposition to South Africa. However, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen’s blitzkrieg within the final 10 overs meant South Africa put up 399 for seven – the best ever ODI complete in opposition to England and the second-highest on the venue. Buttler thought that the Klaasen innings took issues away from England.
“Yeah, I think that was the main bit of the game. We had them five down there, and if we could have found a way to break that partnership and take another wicket, we could have looked like restricting them to 340 or 350, which probably would have been a really good chase on that pitch,” Buttler mentioned.
“I think getting up to 400 was an excellent score, it sort of took the wind away from us and it was always going to be tough from there, we needed everything to go perfect to pull off a chase like that…”
To add to England’s woes, Reece Topley suffered a finger harm, whereas Adil Rashid was taken sick. “Obviously, Rash (Rashid) was struggling a little bit with the sickness before the game, but I felt like he could get out there and perform and performed really well. So, credit to him for that,” Buttler mentioned.
“Reece obviously took a nasty blow on his finger, which we’ll see tomorrow. But, it’s a character to come back and try. Physically, it was a really demanding innings…”
England received the toss and fielded first – a call that backfired in the long run. “It makes you question maybe (whether) in those kinds of conditions batting first may have been the right call at the toss…”
England travels to Bengaluru subsequent for its sport in opposition to Sri Lanka on October 26.
Source web site: sportstar.thehindu.com
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