England’s decision to bowl first against South Africa in oppressive conditions in Mumbai backfired, resulting in a crushing 229-run defeat in the one-day international match. This loss now jeopardizes England’s chances of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
Winning the toss, the defending champions opted to bowl, but struggled in the hot and humid conditions, allowing South Africa to compile a formidable total of 399 runs in their 50 overs.
England captain Jos Buttler expressed his disappointment following the defeat, stating, “It’s incredibly disappointing, we came here with high hopes to play our best cricket and we were short of that and well beaten. Potentially we should have batted first with the heat. You always look back on the decisions you made. It was incredibly tough conditions, we saw that with the boys in the field.”
The English team made a promising start, dismissing South African opener Quinton de Kock with only the second ball of the innings. However, the game took a turn when tall seamer Reece Topley had to leave the field due to a finger injury.
Buttler acknowledged the challenges faced by his team, saying, “Throughout the first innings lots of things didn’t go to plan. We started nicely and then Reece picked up that injury. We then had the unknown of whether he was going to come back (and bowl), so we tried to fiddle a few overs in. I thought if we could have restricted them to 340-350, probably on this pitch it would have been a really good chase. They just got away from us at the end.”
During their batting innings, England struggled and found themselves at 68 for six as they attempted to accelerate the scoring rate against disciplined South African bowling.
Buttler explained, “We needed to get off to a good start, but the ball did a bit and we had a couple of (unfortunate) dismissals, caught down the leg side and caught at leg slip. When those things start happening you feel like the writing is on the wall.”
This defeat marks England’s third loss in four matches of the tournament, placing them in a precarious position ahead of their next game against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Buttler admitted, “It leaves us with no room for error, we probably have to win every game from here on in.”
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
