England fall to big defeat as injury list lengthens
ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss admitted his side “got what they deserved” after another emphatic defeat, this time by 51 runs in Brisbane, allowed Australia to take an unassailable 4-1 lead in the one-day series with two games to play.
The hosts were restricted to an eminently attainable total of 249, due to the excellence of Chris Woakes, who took six for 45 – the best ODI figures by an England bowler on foreign soil.
But England again fell well short with the bat, the third wicket went down with only 22 on the board and nobody passed 50, and Strauss knows major improvement is needed in that department if England are to compete at the upcoming World Cup.
“We’re very disappointed with the manner in which we’ve played as a batting group so far in this one-day series and we’ve got what we deserved which is Australia have gone on and won the series,” he said.
“We still want guys to play positively. We’ve got the World Cup coming up – we’re going to need to play positive cricket.
“We’ve played very badly. I think we certainly could have won the first two games – in fact we probably should have done but what’s concerning is that we haven’t played smart cricket. That’s disappointing.”
While the batting failures are largely in the mind the concern over their bowlers is physical after injuries to Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett.
Shahzad suffered a hamstring injury while bowling and had to bat with a runner, while Tremlett was ruled out before the game due to a slight side strain.
Both will have scans on Monday and after front-liners Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan flew home early due to injury last week, Strauss said a replacement may be called upon.