Nottingham: England skipper Eoin Morgan admitted that it was their ‘bad fielding’ which let them down and cost the game against Pakistan in the ongoing World Cup. Electing to field at a high-scoring pitch on Monday, England allowed Pakistan to score 348/8 and eventually lost the match by a margin of 14 runs as they could manage 334/9 in their stipulated quota of 50 overs.
England let down a couple of chances and were sloppy in the field. Jason Roy let down a rather-easy catch of Mohammad Hafeez, who played a match-winning knock of 84 from just 62 balls and played a crucial role in Pakistan reaching around 350-run mark.
It was not just Roy: a number of fumbles and nutmegs gave singles away. Combined with the 11 wides their bowlers gave way, it left England chasing nearly 30 more than might have been the case.
“I don’t think it was (that) bad a day,” clarified the England captain when asked about the overall performance. “Fielding wise it was.”
He conceded that his side “made mistakes we don’t normally make” that “cost us probably 15-20 runs in the field”.
“Fielding is an attitude thing,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Morgan as saying after the match. “So it’s a matter of taking our stand-off attitude in the field today and getting back to our positive attitude where we go for everything. We need to create that fearless nature where we maybe take a half chance rather than standing off a normal chance.”
Morgan seemed to be satisfied with the team’s batting and bowling and squarely put the blame for the defeat at the feet of the team’s fielding performance.
“With the ball we restricted them, bearing in mind the wicket was good and the outfield fast,” Morgan said. “And we recovered with the bat with that substantial partnership between Jos Buttler and Joe Root.
“Those guys played brilliantly but they did just keep us in the game. They needed more help either from the other four in the top six or the guys down the order.
“We’ve gone from one of our best performances in the field at The Oval to a, not extremely bad one, but one that has cost us probably 15-20 runs. And what were we: 14 runs short?” he added.
England now travel to Cardiff where they will play Bangladesh on Saturday. Bangladesh will be full of confidence after defeating South Africa in their opening game and will no doubt be looking to inflict further misery onto the hosts.
