England skipper Stuart Broad frustrated by defending champions' 2012 inconsistency
Inexperienced England failed to measure up in defence of their ICC World Twenty20 title — and, in the words of their captain Stuart Broad, were “not quite good enough” throughout.
England’s exit was confirmed on Monday when, despite a maiden Twenty20 international half-century from Samit Patel, they lost by 19 runs to Sri Lanka.
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England skipper Stuart Broad during their match against Sri Lanka on Monday. PICs/AFP, Getty Images
Two years after Paul Collingwood led his country to their first, and still only, International Cricket Council trophy — in this sprint format — Broad’s callow team must head home before the semi-final stage.
Only victory would have taken England through to the knockout stages — and although Patel (67) and even Graeme Swann, with some late hitting, got them closer than had seemed likely, they never looked likely to prevail.
The relatively near miss was an appropriate, if frustrating, way for England’s unconvincing campaign to end.
“Ten minutes after the game, you’re obviously really disappointed,” said Broad.
“You can look at the missed opportunities. But I think throughout the whole tournament, we’ve not quite been good enough.
“It’s very disappointing to have gone out, because I believe we do have the firepower in that changing room to go far,” added the captain.
“Coming to the ground today, knowing you win three games and you win a ‘World Cup’, you’re not that far away. It’s frustratingly close.”
Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara celebrates the wicket of England’s Ravi Bopara
Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga undermined England’s chase of 169 for six, almost from the outset, with three wickets in his first over — on the way to career-best figures of five for 31.
Broad did not exactly heap accolades on Malinga, reasoning his early wickets were not the hardest-earned.
“Obviously those three wickets in the third over damaged us quite a bit. It was a shame, because we’d got quite a nice little start. It’s Twenty20 cricket — he got a short and wide one caught at point, one caught at mid-off and a leg-side (lbw) that was missing six stumps.”
“He obviously hurt us with those three wickets. But they weren’t jaffas, were they?
“We just managed to get out to them,” he said.
So it was for much of the past two weeks that England have occasionally been the cause of their own downfall.
“What you get with young guys is some days absolute brilliance, and other days a bit of averageness,” added Broad.
A learning experience
“I think, as a team, we’ve probably shown that. It has been a learning experience for us.
“Obviously, we didn’t have enough players firing at the same time,” he said
“The talent is certainly there. You see on the domestic scene these are the guys who are performing week in week out. It’s a learning experience when you come into the international scene.
“We’ve got guys here who haven’t played a lot of international cricket. But as long as we learn from it, we will develop,” Broad added. —u00a0
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