England head coach Matthew Mott was left disappointed after his side suffered a 100-run loss to India in the ODI World Cup 2023. In a post-match press conference, Mott said that England’s batting has been their Achilles heel in the tournament and they need to work on it. He added that England’s bowling and fielding have been good in the tournament, but their batting has let them down.
“The latest thing has been our batting, the thing that’s gone wrong. It’s no secret that we keep getting bowled out before we get our full allotment of 50 overs. So that would be a big part of it,” Matthew Mott said. “I was really pleased at the halfway mark. I thought it was definitely our best bowling and fielding effort. And we went out to bat with a lot of positivity about it being a very achievable total,” he added.
However, England lost four wickets for 10 runs in the middle overs, and that derailed their chase.
WATCH – Ikram Alikhil Suffers Injury During World Cup Clash Against Sri Lanka
“Anytime you lose four for ten you put yourself under pressure and chase and it unravelled again from there unfortunately,” Matthew Mott said. Mott said that England never really buy into the defending champions’ tag and they knew it would be hard work to qualify for the top four.
England coach Matthew Mott denies player rift as India pile more misery on England #IndiaNews #DailyNews #India [Video] England’s white-ball coach Matthew Mott has rejected former captain Eoin Morgan’s suggestion that his struggling team are “unsettled”… https://t.co/usgEjZy597
— Gabby Winters (@GabbyWEUNV) October 30, 2023
“I never really buy into the defending champions thing; I think everyone starts on the same points and we knew we would have to play out of our skin to qualify for the top four here. There are a lot of good teams here and a lot of teams that play really well in these conditions,” he said.
Mott concluded by saying that England still have a lot to play for in the tournament and they will be looking to finish on a strong note.
“As we mentioned before, we’ve got a lot to still play for the end of this tournament,” he said.
ALSO READ: Cheteshwar Pujara Criticizes England’s Aggressive Brand Of Cricket In ICC World Cup 2023
In the match, India posted a total of 229/9 thanks to half-centuries from Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. David Willey was the pick of the bowlers for England with three wickets.
In the run chase, England were never really in the game and were bowled out for 129 in 39.3 overs. Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah picked up four wickets each for India. With this win, India moved to the top of the table with 12 points from six matches, while England remained at the bottom with one win from six matches.
