No room for error after England suffer heavy World Cup defeat to Sri Lanka

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/01/cricket-world-cup-england-sri-lanka-report

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When a couple of days ago the Sri Lanka manager dared to say a World Cup match against England was like being given a bye, he was being mischievous. The last time they met in the competition, in Colombo four years ago, Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets but the manner in which his team disposed of England in the Wellington Cake Tin by nine wickets suggests he may have had a point. For the second match running England, driven by Joe Root’s fourth ODI hundred, had topped 300 – 309 for six in fact – a total exceeded only twice in 24 previous games here, in the same match in 2005 when New Zealand made 320 in reply to Australia’s 322 for 5.

That went by the board as Lahiru ­Thirimanne, missed when seven by Jos Buttler’s indecision and again on 98 when Moeen Ali made a hash of a simple chance at extra cover, made a century of his own. Meanwhile, Kumar Sangakkara cut and pulled, dinked and drove, sliced, diced, teased and twinkle-toed to another, from only 70 balls – his fastest – and his second in a week to add to an burgeoning collection. He is a supreme player who fed voraciously on the short ball in particular.Thirimanne said England made it easy for him and they surely did: he finished unbeaten on 139 from 143 balls, featuring 13 fours and two sixes. Sangakkara ended on 117 from 86 balls with 11 fours and two sixes, and the pair added 212 for the second wicket. The pair – particularly Sangakkara – showed a remarkable facility for placing the ball where there were no fielders. There were 16 balls in hand when Thirimanne hit Chris Woakes for six over wide long on for the winning runs. After the humiliation against New Zealand and now this, England will not relish a return to this stadium in a hurry.

Now England go to Adelaide and ­Sydney where they play Bangladesh and Afghanistan respectively, both matches they should – and must – win if they are to progress to a quarter-finals. It is a ­paradox though that in losing to Sri Lanka, with the likelihood of finishing bottom of their group, they have enhanced their chances, if only by a slim margin, of ­reaching the semi-finals: in the MCG, they would rather face India, who look like topping their group, than South Africa given the pace of the pitch and the relative ­bowling strengths.

On an excellent pitch to play pace, the England seam bowlers were toothless, lacking the speed or guile to compensate for the absence of the swing they had hoped would manifest itself. Against New Zealand, Tim Southee in particular had swung the ball consistently, not hugely but sufficient to slide past the outside edge.

But that morning, low cloud had obscured the hilltops before burning off: there was moisture around. This day started clear and remained so. Bad balls (and there were plenty of those, of differing lengths) were put away with impunity.England tend to bowl according to the relative strengths of the bowlers rather than to a dictat. So if a bowler such as ­Stuart Broad is more adept at the short ball than, say, a yorker, then it makes more sense to use it as a primary weapon. But even the short ball has to be delivered with precision in terms of length and direction,especially given the restriction on the number of outfielders and here England were found wanting.

The fielding too became ragged and shoddy. Besides the two catches, the first off Broad and the second Jimmy ­Anderson, run outs were missed, the throwing – practiced so assiduously – way off beam when put to the test. Only when spinners bowled did the pitch hold up just a little and life became more difficult for batsmen. Hindsight might suggest then that a second spinner in James Tredwell would have been a better option than one of the seamers (on the evidence here there is not much to choose between who to omit). There has to be a chance Tredwell will play against Bangladesh, even given the short boundaries square of the wicket: a good spinner will cope as Daniel Vettori showed brilliantly in Auckland over the weekend.Root played an outstanding hand, with a measured, perfectly paced innings that helped England to a total they felt was very competitive and should have been defendable.

The form of Gary Ballance is a concern for – despite the endorsement of his captain, Eoin Morgan – he has failed to do a job at No3. There is a single option and that is to open with Alex Hales, and move Ian Bell to three. Yet it is thought that international bowlers have learned how to bowl to Hales by bowling in at him to restrict the width he likes, and his strike rate since is significantly worse than that of Alastair Cook.