England cricket star Stuart Broad made a somewhat bold prediction in January, before the Cricket World Cup got going.
“We would have to have an absolute stinker not to make the quarter finals,” he said.
On Monday, the English had that stinker, losing by 15 runs to Bangladesh in Adelaide, Australia, to ensure an early departure from the World Cup. With just one win over Scotland, England will not advance no matter the result of its final group-stage match against Afghanistan on Thursday.
“England are out of the World Cup. On a ground that has seen humiliation heaped upon them more than once in the past decade, they suffered one more ignominy, hustled out of the competition by a vibrant Bangladesh team who belied their status as whipping boys and delighted their thousands of supporters in the stands,” the Guardian’s Mike Selvey writes.
Bangladesh, which plays New Zealand on Thursday, clinched a spot in the World Cup’s knockout round for the first time. Mohammad Mahmudullah posted his country’s first World Cup century.
“We feel hollow, we haven’t played well enough. I don’t know what to say, what to feel … you feel like you’ve let people down,” England Coach Peter Moores told Sky Sports, per the BBC. “I don’t think we bowled as well as we could have done in the middle but we started well and ended well. The bowlers haven’t bowled as well as they wanted to do, that’s been reflected in results.”
England’s famous fans are reacting about as well as expected.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He's now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post's other Web-based products.
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