Former England skipper Nasser Hussain lashed out at the England squad after they were thrashed by Sri Lanka by 8 wickets at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
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“What I don’t like is giving the players a cop out. Sometimes, I think we do that in English cricket. When they win the 50 over World Cup or the 20 over World Cup, aren’t they great? They are brilliant. Then when the wheels come off, it’s the structure. It’s the structure of English cricket. We are a disgrace.
We play 20 over cricket, we play 100 ball cricket, we don’t play enough 50 over cricket. How much 50 over cricket domestically has Virat Kohli played? Or Heinrich Klaasen? Or anyone out here. They don’t play domestic. They learn from T20 franchises around the world. That’s what has made this great side over the last 6 years, travelling around the world playing T20 franchises. It’s such a lame excuse,” he said.
“You are giving the players a cop out when you blame the structure. The structure that made them world champions. This is exactly the same structure. Yeah, you may have taken the eye off the ball a little bit, not given them enough practice leading into the tournament but it was the structure that produced them and when they mess up, they messed up and not the structure,” he added.
In the match, Sri Lanka defeated defending champions England by eight wickets in a World Cup match on Thursday.
With the loss, England are all but out of contention for a semifinal spot.
England’s decision to bat first backfired as they were bundled out for 156 in 33.2 overs.
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After making a rapid start with a flurry of boundaries to reach 44/0 in six overs, England suffered a batting collapse as they were shot out for a second consecutive total under 200 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
For Sri Lanka, Lahiru Kumara was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with figures of 7-0-35-3 while Angelo Mathews and Kasun Rajitha claimed two wickets apiece.
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Sri Lanka made short work of the chase, reaching the target in 25.4 overs as they scored 160 for two. Opener Pathum Nissanka (77 not out) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65 not out) played unbeaten knocks to guide Sri Lanka home after the loss of two early wickets.
For England, David Willey (2/30) picked up both the wickets.
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