Bamboozled England back to practice nets
25 Sep 2012 2:14 AM GMT
A chastened England will resume their faltering defence of the World Twenty20 title later this week, desperate to find a way to tackle spin after crashing to their biggest loss in T20 cricket. India’s spinners sent Stuart Broad’s men packing for just 80 in Sunday’s group A match in Colombo, inflicting a defeat of 90 runs. It was England’s lowest total in the shortest format and their heaviest defeat.
Luckily for England, the capitulation came in a match of no consequence in terms of the tournament since both teams had qualified for Super Eights after knocking minnows Afghanistan out. But the holders’ failure to deal with spin will be of great concern to Broad, who attempted to play down the embarrassing loss.
‘Any defeat is frustrating, especially when you put in a performance like that. But it does not change anything really, apart from us having to face a few more spinners in the nets,’ Broad said.
Broad also brushed aside suggestions that the team missed their best player of spin bowling, axed batsman Kevin Pietersen, who is in Colombo as a studio expert for the host broadcaster. ‘We’ve 15 guys here and we’ve known that all along. We did not perform well with the bat and it’s important to learn from what went wrong against India,’ he said.
Luckily for England, the capitulation came in a match of no consequence in terms of the tournament since both teams had qualified for Super Eights after knocking minnows Afghanistan out. But the holders’ failure to deal with spin will be of great concern to Broad, who attempted to play down the embarrassing loss.
‘Any defeat is frustrating, especially when you put in a performance like that. But it does not change anything really, apart from us having to face a few more spinners in the nets,’ Broad said.
Broad also brushed aside suggestions that the team missed their best player of spin bowling, axed batsman Kevin Pietersen, who is in Colombo as a studio expert for the host broadcaster. ‘We’ve 15 guys here and we’ve known that all along. We did not perform well with the bat and it’s important to learn from what went wrong against India,’ he said.
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