Australia. beat England. by (33) runs putting an end to their World Cup defence campaign
England captain Jos Buttler said the Cricket World Cup exit is a low point for him and admits his own performance is the biggest concern.
A 33-run defeat to arch-rivals Australia ended England’s abysmal World Cup defence, in which they suffered five consecutive losses and have two games left to play.
Buttler, who led England to victory in the 20-over World Cup in Australia last year where they became double champions, said his own performance throughout the tournament is his biggest concern.
“My own form has been the biggest concern coming into the tournament. I felt in a great space and I have not played as well as I can in such a pivotal role, my own performance with the bat has hurt us,” Butter said.
“It’s certainly a low point. I’ve had a few but definitely as a captain, to be stood in this position when you arrive in India with very high hopes is incredibly tough.
“We certainly haven’t done ourselves justice. Coming into the tournament we fancy ourselves to have a real go at it and push whoever it was going to be all the way. It’s incredibly tough, you know, to reach those highs.
“Everyone knows how much hard work goes into that. And even when you come up short, there’s so much hard work that goes into that.
Perhaps England’s fate was already decided when opener Jonny Bairstow was caught down the leg-side off the first ball in their chase of 287.
Only Dawid Malan (50) and Ben Stokes (64) went on to reach half-centuries, but Australia didn’t show an overly dominant performance with the bat either as only Marnus Labuschagne (71) surpassed that milestone.
England will be able to feature in the ICC Champions Trophy if they finish in the top seven of the World Cup table meaning they have win in their final two games against the Netherlands and Pakistan to move up from 10th place.
“The only way you can get back into form or start winning games again is to front up and go again, you have to keep putting in the hard work as individuals and believing that it’s not far away,” Buttler added.
“The longer it goes on, the closer you are to coming out the other side of it.”
England’s Moeen Ali also admitted that the side has not been good enough from the start of their campaign when they suffered a shock defeat to New Zealand in the World Cup opener.
“It’s very disappointing. We just haven’t been good enough from the start and today showed the lack of confidence in the side,” said Moeen.
