It had the sense of the night when England’s title defence fell apart. They placed their hopes in the core of players who have underpinned their white-ball revolution and their rise from also-rans to double world champions; collectively, they have simply not performed.
England’s hopes effectively ended with Dawid Malan’s leg-side dismissal in the sixth over•ICC/Getty Images
England were simply exhausted, and not for a lack of basic fitness. “It certainly looked a bit like a warzone there at times,” Mott said. The problem stemmed from Buttler’s choice to bowl first when he won the toss, a decision he explained by saying: “[This is] generally a good ground for Chasing, so that’s the reason behind it.”
But like so many decisions England have made in this World Cup, the explanation relied more on the past than the present and the future. England wandered out to field at 2pm, when Mumbai’s heat and humidity were at their most oppressive. It was a simple recipe for disaster: 11 Englishmen, left in the pan for four hours until fried to a crisp.
The evidence underlying Buttler’s assertion was scant. Chasing teams had a 75% win record in men’s ODIs at the Wankhede over the past decade, but the sample size was all of four matches. There is a strong chasing bias in the IPL, but the physical requirements of 90 minutes in the field in the evening are hardly comparable to a full afternoon in the blazing sun.
Heinrich Klaasen described the conditions as “brutal” after his outstanding century•Associated Press
The conditions were brutal, not least for an XI which featured only three players under the age of 32. There was a revolving door of players coming on and off the field due to niggles, cramps or illness, to change their sweat-drenched shirts or simply for a moment’s respite. England’s medical staff became the busiest men in Mumbai.
And barely 90 minutes after walking off the field, Willey was back out in the middle. Four days after Mott had insisted England would not make “wholesale changes”, they made three: Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Chris Woakes were replaced by Willey, Gus Atkinson and Ben Stokes.
It left them relying on their top six to score the bulk of their runs, instead they managed 55 between them. Chasing 400, England “needed everything to go perfectly”, in Buttler’s words. Nothing did: it was game over after the first ball of the sixth over, when Marco Jansen had Dawid Malan strangled down the leg side to leave them 24 for 3.
England have not officially been eliminated from this World Cup, but the manner of this defeat was so painful that it is hard to see how they can turn things around. They talked a good game in Mumbai this week but, as they prepare to play Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on Thursday, the same messaging will have little effect.
Teams are likely to need six wins out of nine in the group stage to reach the semi-finals: England will need five in a row to reach that point, and do not look like they know where even one is coming from. “We’ll keep the belief,” Buttler insisted, but few outside of their dressing-room will join them – and those doubts must be seeping inside it.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
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