England, though, are having a bloody good go anyway, yesterday’s drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka a different kind of underwhelming to the three defeats in four matches that preceded it but contributing to the same tale of a sad, sudden decline.
And whatever there is to say about the four years of missteps and inevitable reprioritisation that, to some extent, set this team up to fail (spoiler: there’s plenty), it has been sudden. Coming into this World Cup few people had England down as its best team but absolutely no one had them down as its worst.
You could make a decent case now, though, only net-run-rate keeping Jos Buttler’s side ahead of Holland and off the foot of the table, with a tougher closing run of fixtures than the Dutch. The permutations may highlight avenues that remain open across those four matches, but the eye test tells you England’s World Cup is as dead as the dodo. Done, finished, kaput.
“It’s over now, I think,” head coach Matthew Mott conceded. “I’m not a mathematician, but with our net-runrate and too many teams who are going to take games off each other.”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 27, 2023 من Evening Standard.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 27, 2023 من Evening Standard.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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