MARCH 10 — England’s Cricket World Cup campaign was at stake on Monday in a group stage meeting with Bangladesh in Adelaide, Australia.
The equation was simple: win, and a place in the quarter-finals was almost certainly secured; lose, and it was an early plane home to scorn and ridicule.
As former England captain Michael Atherton, now a respected pundit, noted during his television commentary, England’s biggest enemy was the demons in their heads.
Bangladesh, although not the lightweights they used to be, are by no means a formidable force and in normal circumstances England would approach any meeting with them fully expecting to win – as borne out by the all-time record between the teams which reads played 15, England won 13, Bangladesh won 2.
But these were no normal circumstances, with England heading into the encounter in Adelaide bearing the mental scars of embarrassingly heavy defeats against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka and knowing that most of the watching world was willing them to fail.
After England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field, Bangladesh posted a reasonable but far from daunting total of 275, giving England a run chase which should have been child’s play in a World Cup where the major teams are regularly posting well in excess of 300.
With the benefit of a good batting pitch, the man bearing the biggest responsibility for England’s innings was the opening batsman and a player who has been something of an enigma during his long international career: Ian Bell.
On his day, Bell is one of the most watchable batsmen in world cricket. Blessed with perfect technique, he is a smooth and clean hitter with the capability of dismissing the ball to the boundary as though it was the easiest thing in the world, the ball gliding over the grass with lightning speed and unerring accuracy.
But, providing a fairly neat encapsulation of the England team as a whole, there have always been doubts over his mental approach, with accusations that he has lacked the ruthlessness to become one of the very best – that he is, in short, too soft.
His record so far in this World Cup backed up that suggestion: in four previous innings, he had scored 36, 8, 54 and 49 – respectable enough, but a player of his ability really should be going on from those promising starts to score big hundreds.
This, then, was a big test and an opportunity for Bell to prove the doubters wrong and show that he can be relied upon to produce a major innings when his team needs it the most.
Wickets around him fell regularly from the off, with Moeen Ali getting himself run out and Alex Hales tentatively edging behind just when it seemed he was starting to cut loose – another indication of the team’s mental wariness.
Bell was next joined by in-form Joe Root and this, you felt, was the crucial phase of the match as night fell over the Adelaide Oval: England had their best two batsmen at the crease, and if they could stay there through the middle portion of the innings whilst keeping the scoreboard ticking over by staying positive and taking advantage of any poor deliveries, the match was theirs for the taking.
But with the run rate already exceeding six an over they could not afford to become cautious and bogged down by the importance of the situation or the pressure they were under. Hesitation and uncertainty was not an option.
That, however, is exactly what happened. Although Bell inched his way to and beyond his half-century, the runs started to come less frequently as loose balls were sent straight to fielders rather than through to the boundary, and the required rate crept up and up, exceeding 6.5 per over.
This should have been Bell’s time to rise to the fore. He is good enough to have dominated the Bangladesh bowlers and lead England to a comfortable victory.
He couldn’t do it, sensing the necessity to increase the run rate but misjudging a quicker delivery from Rubel Hossain and edging it behind, dismissed for a handy but far from matchwinning 63. Once again, Bell had failed to push on from a good start and his team was suddenly in trouble.
And trouble became a crisis when captain Eoin Morgan, James Taylor and Root all going in quick succession, leaving England’s last hope lying with powerful hitter Jos Buttler.
Accompanied by Chris Woakes, Buttler set about his task with relish, hitting regular boundaries en route to a half century in just 41 deliveries and advancing to 65 before getting caught in two minds and edging behind.
With 38 more runs needed and only three wickets in hand, there was no more margin for error. But unforgivably, there was error on the very next ball as Chris Jordan senselessly got himself run out, leaving England in need of a miracle which did not transpire, allowing Bangladesh to celebrate a famous win.
An awful lot was wrong with the England performance, with the overall state of tension within the camp evident from the tentative nature of many of their dismissals.
And although Ian Bell has been, at times, a wonderful player for his country, his failure to take the game by the scruff of the neck was one of the biggest contributory factors to a humiliating defeat. The inquest will be ugly.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
