TUESDAY POLL: New low is reached as England are stung by Holland

England coach Ashley Giles and captain Stuart Broad both blamed a chronic case of complacency for their humiliating defeat by Holland.
Netherlands's Mudassar Bukhari celebrates the wicket of England's Michael Lumb (Picture: AM Ahad/AP).Netherlands's Mudassar Bukhari celebrates the wicket of England's Michael Lumb (Picture: AM Ahad/AP).
Netherlands's Mudassar Bukhari celebrates the wicket of England's Michael Lumb (Picture: AM Ahad/AP).

The ‘c’ word is virtually anathema in top-level sport, denoting as it does a lack of professionalism and pride in the job at hand.

But, when groping for ways to explain a calamitous 45-run defeat to an Associate nation who do not know where their next competitive fixture will come from, both men agreed that England had taken their task too lightly.

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The description certainly fit an execrable batting display, a series of lazy shots, incompetent running and dreadful decision-making culminating in 88 all out with 14 balls left unbowled.

Giles, who can now expect a tricky final interview for the vacant position of head coach, cut a particularly forlorn figure at the end of the match.

“How do I explain that? Only with a couple of words: complacency would be one of them,” he said.

“There’s no hiding place. I’m not sure there’s anything more we can say other than it was unacceptable and embarrassing. You can’t choose when to turn it on and off and I felt we thought we could (yesterday).

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“Every time you put on an England shirt and bowl a ball, field a ball, hit a ball, you have to have everything in it and we weren’t doing that.

“There has to be some personal responsibility but we stick together and we have all lost that match.

“It should hurt those guys as much as it hurts me and I hope it does.”

Broad certainly gave the impression that he was sharing the burden of what is probably the lowest ebb of a miserable few months of touring travails. In his own frustration, he saw similar issues as Giles.

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“We talked before the match about complacency not coming anywhere near our game, but if I had been watching that then I’d look at that batting performance and say it was complacent,” he said.

“No one seemed to have any hunger to go and get any runs and there was obviously some soft dismissals in there with no one making a telling contribution to chase a low score.

“It sums up our winter as an England side. It was pretty similar to the batting displays we put in after we lost the Ashes in Australia.

“There was a lack of commitment in the shots and a very disorganised chase. No one got going, no one took responsibility and, fair play to the Netherlands, they took their chance.”

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The coronation of Giles as Andy Flower’s full-time replacement in charge of team affairs was expected to be little more than a formality prior to this game.

Indeed, although a semi-final appearance was already off the table, there were signs in the win over Sri Lanka and narrow defeat by South Africa that things were heading in the right direction.

He admits his own future is now far from certain.

“We should all be worried shouldn’t we? We are talking about all our jobs,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be the ideal way to go out (as coach).

“The sun will still come up tomorrow but sometimes it feels like it won’t when you have days like that at the office and it wasn’t good from anyone.”

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There is likely to be limited appetite among fans for ‘finding the positives’ after this latest debacle, but Broad tried his best nonetheless. He said: “We have a bit of time now where we can sit back and try to find the way forward.

“It is a bit of a new era for English cricket coming and that is exciting.”

Spinner Rangana Herath produced the bowling performance of the tournament as Sri Lanka progressed to the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 by rolling New Zealand for just 60

Herath, making his first appearance of the competition in place of Ajantha Mendis, produced a magical spell – claiming 5-3 in 3.3 overs of left-arm spin.

It meant Sri Lanka’s modest 119 all out was enough for a 59-run win and also condemned the exiting Kiwis to their lowest ever T20 total.