WI vs ENG – Harry Brook believes England too careful in pursuit of West Indies

Ravi Singh

4 hours ago

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Harry Brook believes England were “too careful” in their failed pursuit of 197 on Wednesday evening in Mumbai, after his side fell 30 runs short with an over to spare as West Indies triumphed in their Group C clash.

Defeat in this match-up of two-time T20 World Cup champions is by no means terminal, though Brook’s side are now third in the group on Net Run Rate, behind Scotland who they face next. However, the manner of the loss had the England captain questioning the lack of intent – including his own.

Sherfane Rutherford’s unbeaten 76 lifted West Indies to an impressive 196 for 6, a total the left-hander believed was 10 short. His innings began at 55 for 3, with an initial rebuild with Roston Chase before Jason Holder took the initiative with 33 from 17 deliveries as part of a match-turning stand of 61 (from 32) with Rutherford for the sixth wicket.

England, by contrast, started briskly – Phil Salt the catalyst with 30 of the first 38 runs scored in the opening 3.2 overs of the second innings – before the spin trio of Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein kept things quiet out of the Powerplay overs. They banked six of the final nine wickets to fall for just 92 runs inside 12.3 overs, with Sam Curran remaining not out with a frustrated 43.

Brook ceded that the evening dew had not lived up to his expectation. Having won the toss, he elected to chase believing the pitch would get better for batting with the expected moisture to come skidding the ball onto the bat and thus making it easier to target the spinners.

Though that did not play out, Brook lamented his charges for not attacking early or often enough. They struck six sixes to West Indies’ 13, and managed just two boundaries off Chase’s four overs, after the off-spinning allrounder was drafted into the side for Matthew Forde. The dismissal of Tom Banton chipping to cover, and Brook’s return catch – both to Motie – highlighted a tentativeness England usually err against.

“We were probably a little bit careful, myself included,” said Brook, matter-of-factly. “I’d much rather be caught on the boundary rather than the way I did today. That’s part of T20 cricket.

“He (Motie, who finished with 3 for 33) was probably the main threat at the time so, personally, I was trying to knock it into the leg side and get Sam back on strike.

“Chasing nearly 200 is always a big ask and we thought the pitch would get better and it would slide onto the bat a little more, and that didn’t happen. We thought it was chaseable, definitely. We obviously planned for dew (opting to bat second) and it didn’t quite get as dewy as we thought.”

That lack of intent, while exactly what head coach Brendon McCullum preaches against across all formats, was particularly jarring considering this batting group breached 300 just five months ago. In fact, this time they had reinforced their firepower with the addition of Jamie Overton in place of Luke Wood – the only change to the XI from England’s opening victory against Nepal, and that record breaking T20I against South Africa at Emirates Old Trafford.

“With the power that we have at the back end, myself included, I thought I could have taken a risk a little bit earlier knowing we still had Jacksy (Will Jacks), and Jamie Overton to come in. With that power and that depth that we have, we do think we can chase almost anything. Obviously today, we didn’t.”

England remain on course to quality for the Super 8s, and with second-stage groups done on seedings rather than whether or not they finish top of Group C, defeat to West Indies is more forgiving. The cushion of two points from a nail-biting win over Nepal in their World Cup opener means they will arrive in Kolkata extremely confident of progressing. They face Scotland at Eden Gardens on Saturday, before finishing against Italy two days later at the same venue.

“Thank god we won against Nepal the other night,” mused Brook. “Otherwise we’d be in a tricky situation.”

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