England unconvincing even in victory

England fail to convince


Jonathan Agnew - BBC cricket correspondent 11 Apr 07, 09:09 PM
Barbados -


It would be nice to be able to encourage England's long suffering supporters by reporting that their victory over Bangladesh was even remotely convincing.
Unfortunately, it was an unbelievably laboured, tortuous effort in a game which should have ended hours before it did.
Before continuing, I must pay tribute to Bangladesh. To come out fighting so tenaciously with only 143 runs on the board, and to push England so hard was outstanding. They gave an object lesson in creating pressure by tight, intense fielding in support of canny left-arm spin.
England’s jittery performance was best reflected by Michael Vaughan’s innings. It was not easy to tell whether he was attempting to bat himself into form, or whether he is now completely out of touch, but having been dropped by the wicket-keeper on five, he scratched his way to 30 from 59 balls before top edging a slog sweep to short fine leg.
There will be further calls for him to drop down the order for the two crucial matches against South Africa and West Indies that remain. Frankly, he is only still in the one-day team because he is the captain.
When Bangladesh were reduced to 65-6 on what started out as a quick and bouncy track, England should have finished them off. Instead of setting an orthodox attacking field of slips and a gully, we saw a bizarre passage of play in which a packed square off side field was set for the left handed Saqibul Hasan.
Presumably this was another of England’s cunning bowling plans, and it failed spectacularly as Saqibul got himself in, hit a flurry of fours, and established a stand of 47 with Mortaza. England quickly fell flat in the field, and it was only when Monty Panesar was introduced that England got amongst the wickets again.
England are desperately lacking in confidence, and whether or not this is because of Vaughan’s predicament it is difficult to say.
Given a target of 144 to win, a team like Australia would have dealt with it ruthlessly and, crucially, boosted their net run rate at the same time. But England have been convincing only once in this tournament, when Kenya were easily beaten early on. Even Canada and Ireland were not disposed with any great conviction.
England are limping through the World Cup and, on the evidence of what we have seen over the last four weeks, only a brilliant match-winning individual effort will get them past South Africa on Tuesday.