Peter Moores, the England head coach, was in a contrite mood when the team arrived here for the game against Scotland on Monday. It was no time for excuses, or mitigation.
“My overriding feeling was a disappointment for the people who came to watch,” he said, “and we can only apologise for that because we didn’t play in the way we wanted to play. Backed up from what happened at the MCG it is something we have to address. It was unacceptable.
“We are not looking for excuses. If you spoke to the players they would say that the preparation for this game was good but when it came to playing they just didn’t play. We didn’t play in the style we would have liked, got to address that, accept it and come back with something.”
How could it go so catastrophically wrong? England came into this World Cup knowing full well that their first two matches would be the toughest faced by anyone: being underdogs against Australia is not a new phenomenon but against New Zealand as well is something altogether new. It was New Zealand who dealt with the relative statuses better, a team in the best sense of the word, brilliantly led by brain and example, and containing excellent cricketers with more – the left-arm paceman Mitchell McClenaghan springs to mind – on the sidelines. They are right up there with the best.
England were dismal, a collective failure to cope with conditions in which they, of all teams, ought to be able cope. The white balls swung for New Zealand, the one used by Tim Southee more than that accorded Trent Boult, and did so consistently through the 33 overs the innings lasted. It was unusual to see that. England lost early wickets but the manner in which Southee had bowled, and the prospect of Jimmy Anderson in particular matching that, meant that at 104 for three, they had the foundations of a competitive total. Instead, Eoin Morgan, sensing, so he says, the game drifting towards the opposition, tried to seize the initiative, and holed out. Brendon McCullum was on it in a flash, brought back his strike bowler Southee, and that was that. Southee would have been a handful for anyone on this day, but
England were bereft of ideas as he went wide of the crease to vary his angle, beat the outside of the bat to rattle the off stump and hammered in his yorker, all at around 86mph. Brilliant bowling then, but a capitulation nevertheless.
“The Tri-Series was a great place to prepare,” Moores said. “We beat India twice and scored 300 against Australia. We have to accept that with some of our emerging players there are still some gaps between them and those of New Zealand and Australia, who are very good sides. But the way we play, I don’t think anyone in the dressing room, coach or player, would be happy with that, and we have to be judged by what we come back with.
“We can talk all we like but, realistically, on Monday we play Scotland then we have Sri Lanka and we have to start playing better cricket if we are to get ourselves in a position to qualify for the quarter-finals.”
