Adelaide, Mar 8:
Staring at an unexpected early exit, beleaguered England would be desperate to get their act together when they take on higher-placed Bangladesh in a do-or-die cricket World Cup Pool A league match here tomorrow.
Having lost three of their four matches so far, England need nothing less than victories in the remaining two league games — against Bangladesh and Afghanistan — to stay in contention for the last eight stage.
Bangladesh, with two wins from as many matches, are placed higher than England in the table at fourth position and the Asian team would be looking to consolidate its position.
England had lost to Bangladesh by two wickets in the last World Cup in 2011 but still survived the shock defeat to qualify for the quarter-finals. However, there will be no such second chance this time.
The English side has lost to all Test-playing nations so far in the — Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka — and their lone win has come against minnows Scotland.
In fact, in their previous match against Sri Lanka, England failed to defend even a reasonably challenging target of 310 with nine wickets and 16 deliveries to spare.
Come tomorrow, England will have to play as an unit.
There has been a hundred each in the current tournament from Moeen Ali against Scotland and Joe Root in a losing cause against Sri Lanka, but just two other England batsmen have scored half-centuries so far in the tournament.
Under Eoin Morgan’s leadership, England would hope to rise to the occasion in the make-or-break clash.
Although Morgan himself has managed to score just 90 runs at an average of 22.50, his biggest concern will be the performance of his two pace spearheads James Anderson and Stuart Broad. (PTI)
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