For a team which was billed as the tournament favourites and had totally justified the favourites tag by winning all its matches in the group stage to enter the semifinal, nothing went its way on Wednesday (June 14) as hosts England crashed out of the tournament after the shocking loss against Pakistan in the semifinal.
Starting from the toss to the last ball of the match when Mohammad Hafeez hit a four to seal the game for Pakistan, nothing went right for England as they bowed out of yet another ICC global event without tasting success. After being asked to bat first on a used Cardiff pitch, England’s formidable batting line-up found the going tough against Pakistan’s disciplined bowling and huffed and puffed to 210 all out in 49.5 overs. In reply, Pakistan won the game with utmost ease, chasing down the small total inside 38 overs and losing just a couple of wickets.
Speaking after the loss, Eoin Morgan, while insisting that England did not enjoy home advantage at Cardiff, said that the batsmen’s failure to adapt to the surface played a big part in the loss.
“I don’t think there was any home advantage,” Morgan said. “We knew that we were going to play on a used wicket at some stage in this tournament. Having watched the game against Sri Lanka, we actually didn’t think it was that bad. But certainly today, coming from Edgbaston, it was obviously a big jump in pace and bounce, and too much of an ask for us to adjust to, really.”
The hosts had played a group match at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens against New Zealand and had scored 310. However, with the surface being used for the second time in three days, the English batsmen failed to get their timing right on a slower and lower pitch.
“We left ourselves short adapting to conditions. It’s a big frustration because I think we’ve played some great cricket in this tournament and we weren’t anywhere close to it today. Credit to Pakistan, they played brilliantly,” Morgan added.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s batsmen batted quite comfortably on the same pitch. When asked about the reason behind it, Morgan said:
“I think the explanation is they played two days ago on it.”
Morgan also had a word of praise for Pakistan’s bowling efforts.
“Every partnership we had struggled to take initiative to the Pakistan bowlers,” he said. “I thought they bowled really well. They adjusted to conditions extremely well, and the wicket was obviously slow and low and hard to get away to start with. Every partnership we had started behind the rate, which put us under the pump a little bit, and none of our batsmen seemed to get away. I felt like we were trying to take a positive option against them, but the conditions didn’t allow us to do that.”
Morgan concluded by saying that the heart-breaking loss would not hamper the development of the one-day side before the all important 2019 World Cup, which will also be held in England.
“One of the huge contributing factors towards topping our table and playing very good cricket in the group stages is that we’ve stayed true to what we believe in and what’s worked for us the last couple of years, and I think that’s the continued formula for the future,” Morgan said. “I think it will have to evolve in whatever manner the game does over the next two years in the lead-in to the World Cup, but certainly, I think we’re moving in the right direction.”