Are England just a bunch of “flat-track bullies”
That’s the uncomfortable question facing Eoin Morgan’s sideas they look to get their World Cup campaign back on track against arch-rivalsAustralia.
Tuesday’s match at Lord’s was always going to be a showpieceoccasion, but it has been given added spice by England’s 20-run loss to SriLanka.
Faced with a relatively modest target of 233 on a trickyHeadingley pitch, England slumped to 212 all out.
Despite their second defeat of the pool phase following anearlier loss to Pakistan, the tournament hosts remained in the top four and oncourse for a semi-final spot.
But England, bidding to win the World Cup for the firsttime, cannot afford many more slip-ups in their remaining pool fixtures againstfellow title contenders Australia, India and New Zealand — teams they have notdefeated at a World Cup since 1992.
England’s rise to the top of the one-day internationalrankings since their woeful first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup has beenbased on aggressive batting.
They have twice posted a world record score at this level inthe intervening four years, including the current mark of 481-6 againstAustralia at Trent Bridge just over 12 months ago.
– ‘Dumb cricket’ –
Doubts, however, persist about England’s ability to bat inless than ideal conditions for shot-making.
Their problems were summed up against Sri Lanka when MoeenAli marked his 100th ODI by hitting a six, only to try to repeat the shot nextball and hole out to leave England 170-6.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was unimpressed,writing in Britain’s Daily Telegraph: “He (Moeen) was there to win the gamebut it was dumb cricket taking on the man at long off having just hit the ballfor six.”
According to research by cricket statisticians CricViz, onthe 11 toughest one-day pitches for batting England have played on since losingto Pakistan in the 2017 semi-finals of the Champions Trophy on a slow Cardiffsurface, they have lost five.
By contrast, on the 11 best pitches for batting they haveplayed on since then, Morgan’s men have won nine.
England’s problems have been compounded by the absence ofJason Roy from their past two matches, with a torn hamstring threatening tosideline the in-form opener from the Australia clash as well.
Yet while former players such as Vaughan bemoaned England’slack of nous against Sri Lanka, Jos Buttler said the problem was they were notaggressive enough.
“I think we were a little bit passive as a group,”said the usually big-hitting Buttler, who made just 10 before becoming the lastof four wickets for veteran paceman Lasith Malinga.
“That doesn’t just mean hitting fours and sixes, thatmeans showing intensity and trying to put pressure back on the bowlers,”he said.
By contrast, Australia have been buoyed by the productiveopening partnership between captain Aaron Finch and David Warner and are secondin the table after five wins from six matches.
Mitchell Starc is the joint-leading wicket-taker at theWorld Cup — his tally of 15 putting him level with fellow pacemen Jofra Archer(England) and Mohammad Amir (Pakistan) — but Australia’s bowling in support ofthe left-armer has looked vulnerable.
Allan Border, Australia’s captain when they beat England inthe 1987 World Cup final in Kolkata, believes it will be the bowlers who aredecisive.”The game will be won and lost in thebowling,” he wrote in an ICC column. “If Australia can hold theirground against the onslaught and put pressure back on England, that’ll be key.”