England’s lurching between attack and defence leaves them in no man’s land،
The light at the end of the tunnel was a train. England spent the last four weeks traveling around India discussing the response to the setbacks and waiting for the declaration that never arrived. If their defeats to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa had been bad, this could have been their worst of all.
The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was a venue that should have suited England perfectly. In the first of five efficient winnable matches, they chose to bat first on a flat pitch with short boundaries, moved to 44 for 0 after six overs and were finally able to afford to dream big: would 350 be enough to flatten Sri Lanka, or should they aim for 400?
They made 156 all out in 33.2 overs, the lowest score recorded in a completed innings in the rich history of this ground. Despite all the skill of Sri Lanka’s bowlers and their dynamism on the field, England came out on top. The man who struck the first blow, Angelo Mathews, is 36 years old; he had not taken an international wicket since he was 33 years old.
England were 146 for 8 by the time Maheesh Theekshana got away from David Willey in the 32nd over, but what followed summed up their World Cup so far. Kusal Mendis shuffled in, took the ball cleanly and was in the process of removing his right glove when he noticed that Adil Rashid was out of bounds at the non-striker’s end.
Mendis’ dead hit found Rashid short of his home court and as Adrian Holdstock sent the decision upstairs, everyone involved knew exactly what had happened. It was a moment of ingenuity, skill and, above all, self-belief – three qualities which England have sorely lacked over the past three weeks.
The game was long over when Rashid dozed off, but it was part of a series of dismissals from scrambled minds. Joe Root slapped Theekshana directly with his finger and ran away; Jonny Bairstow picked out the middle with a cross-court hack; Jos Buttler shone with hard hands and flat feet; Liam Livingstone was stuck in front, looking to bowl a flamingo down the leg side.
In the past, England had mastered the art of spinning the strike and milking the middle rounds. Now they seem to oscillate between attack and defense and have lost more wickets to spin (22) than any other team in this tournament; their batters managed five 50-plus scores between them, the fewest of any team.
Moeen Ali’s own innings matched the damning assessment of his teammates that he had delivered just 24 hours earlier. He built a 37-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Ben Stokes, drawing a boundary through the covers. On the 15th, Mathews gave him a long, wide jump of 75 mph; with a half-engaged cut shot, he sent it straight back. For all of Moeen’s strengths, it was familiarly tame.
Stokes briefly threatened to play the kind of savior innings England expected when he declared himself available for the World Cup two months ago. He received weight by sweeping Theekshana after collecting 13 of his first 36 balls, but when a thin lower edge saved him on review, he began to go through the gears.
He cracked Dilshan Madushanka for three fours at mid-wicket and dragged Dhananjaya de Silva’s off-spin in the same direction. But as he gradually ran out of partners, Stokes decided it was time to take matters into his own hands: he fielded the next level swinging hard at Kumara’s sharp bouncer, and picked out replacement fielder Dushan Hemantha , right next to the rope.
With England on the brink of elimination, Stokes’ total contribution for the tournament stands at 48 runs, 81 balls and two catches. His return from injury – although fit enough to play as a specialist hitter – meant they picked an unbalanced team in Mumbai and then abandoned their best young player, Harry Brook, in Bengaluru. His retirement turnaround was supposed to solve England’s problems, but only created them.
On the field, England were running out of steam with such a low total to defend. It was cruelly fitting that the only bowler to make a real impact, Willey, was not deemed good enough to feature four years ago and was the only member of this team not to have been offered one lucrative central contracts announced two days before. this defeat.
England have put their faith in their golden generation, bringing them together for one final time at an ICC event after an unprecedented period of success, meaning they are – still – holders of both white-ball World Cups . After the triumphs of 2019 at home and 2022 in Australia, 2023 in India proved to be one tournament too many.
The youngest player chosen Thursday was Livingstone, who turned 30 in August and scored 31 runs in four innings: England were banking on the value of experience, but their players looked old and jaded. In the finest tradition of great English sporting teams, they collapsed gradually, then suddenly.
It was England’s fifth consecutive World Cup defeat to Sri Lanka and it ranks among the worst of them – although there have been plenty of grisly drubbings along the way. Sri Lanka was missing its captain, its best fast bowler and its first-choice player – and even at full strength, this is not a team to rival the 2007 or 2011 vintages.
Yet it proved more than enough to comfortably outplay an excellent England team, so much so that Pathum Nissanka hit consecutive sixes to clinch the points in 26th place. The arrival was so early – at half past seven – that a long night of introspection awaited them.
There isn’t even the consolation of an early return home: England still has four domestic flights to catch, four hotels to check in, four matches to play. The next step ? The fugitive leaders, India, met in Lucknow on Sunday. Perhaps the worst is yet to come.
