World Cup 2023: Australia defeat gives meaning to England's horrid campaign

England, the defending champions, are out of the 2023 Cricket World Cup with two matches still to go. They have been eliminated with six defeats from seven matches offering the seventh opportunity to captain Jos Buttler to lament what is wrong with the team that won the World Cup on the boundary count rule in 2019.

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There was a slight difference to the narrative, however, on Saturday. It wasn’t the usual scene of Buttler failing for words and explanation to describe why England have been so poor in the 2023 tournament. Buttler this time was trying to wrap his head around the fact that England didn’t win a do-or-die game.

Chasing 287 against Australia in Ahmedabad with the help of dew and in conditions that didn’t offer much support to the bowlers, England were in a comfortable position at 169/4 in 35 overs. 112 needed from the next 15 overs and with Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali set at the crease, England would have fancied their chances. But on cue, as it has happened in the tournament so often, England lost six wickets for 84 in 13.1 overs and Australia edged closer to the semi-finals, knocking their bitter rivals out of the tournament.

“Improvements today, more with the bat, but we were still well short…with the dew around, we backed ourselves and we fell 30 runs short,” a puzzled Buttler said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

In all the six defeats before the match against arch-rivals, England had been guilty of not putting up a fight of any measure in their batting. It was a string of inexplicable defeats with batters failing more often than the bowlers.

It was the same against Afghanistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.

When it came to the do-or-die contest, the bowlers put their hands up and the batters didn’t. In a game when England came close to giving a proper fight, the grain was separated from the chaff.

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Jonny Bairstow continued his poor form with a golden duck, and Jos Buttler (1) failed to live up to his reputation, but what about Joe Root and Liam Livingstone?

Root (13) has scored 29 runs in his last five innings. Livingstone (2) has scored 40 runs in his last five innings. The last five matches that England have lost on a trot and the streak of defeats that has seen them eliminated from the World Cup.

Now these are the same two players who have been put into the squad to play specialised roles. While Root, who scored 556 in the 2019 World Cup, is the sheet anchor in England’s batting order, Livingstone is the finisher. The truth is both have been poor.

“Man for man, I’d have this (England) team every day over the Australians,” Root had said before the game at Narendra Modi stadium.

Not sure he would be able to say the same about himself now.

Zampa razes down England

The biggest architect of Australia’s victory was leg-spinner Adam Zampa who is now the highest wicket-taker (19) in World Cup 2023. The 31-year-old took three wickets on the night at a mean economy rate of 2.10.

With all due respect, Zampa was good, but he was made a bigger threat by England’s incompetent batting against spin. The tweaker largely had to stick to the stump-to-stump line and English batters surrendered in the fight. This wasn’t surprising given England have been the second-worst against spin bowling in World Cup 2023.

As a team, their batting average against spin bowling in the tournament is 20.22. The only team worse is the Netherlands at 19.82. In seven matches, England have lost 28 wickets to spin bowling and have only scored at a rate of 4.93.

Clearly, England weren’t ready for Indian conditions.

Australia, meanwhile, who began the tournament with two back-to-back victories are now on a five-game winning streak. This despite the team suffering injury issues with Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh leaving for home midway due to personal reasons.

It was a clinical all-round performance that has essentially put the Aussies one win away from a semi-final spot.

When the tournament began, Australia looked in a similar shape to what England find themselves in. However, as England get ready to leave India after their next two matches, their conquerors in Ahmedabad will be proud of how they have recovered.