England arrived as the king of white-ball cricket, the reigning ODI and T20 world champion, with a squad containing some of the best limited-overs players the country has ever produced. But halfway through the group stage of the Cricket World Cup and its title defense is virtually over, with a run of abject, record-setting losses heralding what many see as the beginning of the end of England’s greatest white-ball era. How do we explain a first-ever loss to Afghanistan? The biggest-ever defeat by runs (229) to South Africa? And, on Thursday, an eight-wicket hammering by Sri Lanka?
“I’ve no clear answer,” said Jos Buttler, England’s visibly shaken captain.
Mathematically, England is not out of the World Cup, yet it will need the team to win each of its last four group games — it has won only one of five so far — and for other results to go its way most spectacularly. Matthew Mott, an Australian who is England’s white-ball coach, said he’d pretty much given up hope, and the likelihood is that host nation India, unbeaten and in impressive form with bat and ball, will administer the killer blow in the teams’ meeting in Lucknow on Sunday. The English are ninth in the World Cup standings with two points from their sole victory over Bangladesh and with only the Netherlands below them. Here’s a look at some factors behind one of the worst World Cup title defenses in any sport:
DOWNTURN IN FORM
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