Trevor Bayliss, England’s head coach has admitted that poor fielding by his side cost England the ODI series against South Africa. The visitors were on the verge of creating history in South Africa as they led the 5 match series 2-0 after the first two games. However, the Proteas played some spirited cricket in order to upstage England and seal the series 3-2.
Bayliss however, feels that England’s below par fielding was the reason behind his side’s series loss. In the fourth ODI, Adil Rashid had dropped Chris Morris early in his innings. Morris then went on to play an absolute blinder to win the game for South Africa and level the series. “The batting and bowling was fairly even – both teams relied on about three of their batters and bowling was similar,” Bayliss said. “But they’re a better fielding team than us at the moment.”
“We’ve got a number of guys that are not the quickest in the field but I also think it’s an attitude thing,” Bayliss said. “You want the ball coming at you; you want to prove to people that you can field. At times, some of us don’t want the ball to come anywhere near us. When we are good, we’ve very, very good but it’s something we’ve got to continue to work at,” he added.
Bayliss however admitted that England’s limited overs was right on track. “I don’t think we are far off. We’ve played some pretty good cricket,” he said. “It’s a fine line. Had we taken some catches, we could be sitting here having won 3-2. We’re disappointed to lose the series having played some very good cricket.”