THESE past three months have been an uphill struggle for England and just as they were making forward progress, they tumbled back to base camp and landed with a bump.
England followers of a certain vintage are well used to the spectacle of the extreme batting collapse. Indeed, there has always been a certain morbid fascination in watching the carnage unfold.
Statistically at least, losing eight wickets for eight runs in 19 balls was almost as bad as it gets. It was the second worst eight-wicket collapse in international cricket history after New Zealand’s eight for five Test disintegration against Australia in 1946.
In the context of the white-ball tour, it is a misleading demise. The loss of Eoin Morgan and Joe Root in successive deliveries must have flicked the ‘headless chicken’ button in the dressing room and everyone that followed went down in an inglorious blaze of bat swishing. They batted as if they had a plane to catch – which they did, albeit not until the morning.
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