Andrew Strauss asserts England are still in the running for the World Cup – ICC World Cup 2011
England captain, Andrew Strauss, believes his team is not yet out of the ICC World Cup 2011 and that they can still win the coveted trophy. The English side is in a must win situation against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391.
Strauss is confident that his side will bounce back and said, “World Cups are funny things. You can gain confidence just at the right moment, and get in a real run of form just when you need it. We still haven't had a game where our batting and bowling fire
at the same time, but we need to do it in that last game against the West Indies.”
According to the Poms skipper, consistency is something they lack, and they need to gets things together if they want to progress further. The English team has had a very unpredictable tournament so far. They defeated a strong team like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, drew
a high scoring match against World Cup hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 took them to the edge as well.
English team was very well placed against the Bangladeshi side at 160 for the loss of three wickets before stumbling to 225. However, their bowlers bowled with great enthusiasm taking eight wickets for 169 but they lacked the killer instinct and that allowed
the opposition to bounce back in the game and win it.
Strauss said, “We felt 225 was a par score, that we could defend it, and we got ourselves in a great position to do that. But in the end we weren't able to take those last two wickets, which is desperately disappointing for us.”
Poms are currently placed in fourth place of Group B, with five points from five games and the game against West Indies is their last game of the league. A win will ensure them a place in the knock-out phase, while a loss will open the doors for the Bengal
Tigers, who are at fifth with four points from four matches.
England will play West Indies on Thursday, 17 March at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bengal-c771 Tigers are in a better position than the Poms now, as they have two matches up their sleeves and one of them is against the minnows Netherlands.
Poms World Cup hopes were heavily dented with injuries to star bowler Stuart Broad and veteran batsman Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen suffered from a groin injury which occured after the tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 but intensified in the World Cup. Broad, on the other
hand, suffers from a side strain which he picked up during the match against South Africa.
Both these players have been ruled out of the World Cup. The only good news for Poms, however, was that their one-day specialist, Eoin Morgan, has regained fitness and came in as a replacement for Pieterson. He will have to play an important role in the
match against West Indies and bat a bit longer than he did against Bangladesh.
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