Cricket: Flower dejected after ‘embarrassing’ whitewash

England coach not happy with batting effort, Dhoni seeks improved bowling.


Agencies October 26, 2011

MUMBAI: An utterly disappointed Andy Flower termed his team’s 5-0 whitewash against India in the One-Day International (ODI) series as ‘embarrassing’.

In a sharp contrast to England’s highly dominating display against the world champions on home soil just a month earlier, they ended up on the receiving end in India, with the final ODI in Kolkata witnessing a dramatic collapse as the visitors caved in from 129 for no loss to 176 all out to lose by 95 runs.

The England coach admitted that the humiliating series loss will lead to major changes in the way the team prepares for tough tours.

“It was a bad loss and an embarrassing loss,” he said. “With our batting, it’s fair to say that we’re making the same mistakes.

“We’ve played five times and failed four times with the bat. We have to take responsibility for that.

“It’s disappointing, especially after a strong start,” said Flower of the collapse in Mumbai. “The two openers batted superbly and got us into a strong position to win the game.”

‘We have got to learn’

England arrived two weeks before the series started but it did not aid their cause, something that did not go unnoticed by Flower.

“Our preparations were good, but maybe I’ve misjudged that,” said Flower. “I thought we were in a good position to contest this series strongly. I’ve got to look at some of the decisions I made and the decisions we made as a management team. We have got to learn lessons and there are plenty to learn.”

Dhoni wants improved bowling

Meanwhile, India captain MS Dhoni has admitted India still need to improve their bowling. He expressed concern at the fact that India’s fast-bowlers did not complete their quota of overs in several matches because of their high economy rate.

“It’s a great series-win,” he said. “But our pacers couldn’t bowl 10 overs. We have to be more consistent with our bowling so that we don’t need to have a Suresh Raina bowling alongside Manoj Tiwary.”

India went into the series with several senior players missing through injury, and Dhoni while happy with the young players’ show, insisted that the seniors were still needed.

“It’s difficult to replace the seniors talent-wise. But these youngsters have clicked as a unit. They’ve reacted in the right way. But we really can’t really replace Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.”

Dhoni was named man of the series after scoring 212 runs without being dismissed in the series but said that he would not be moving up the order.

Meanwhile, India climbed from fourth to third in the International Cricket Council ODI rankings and, in contrast, Alastair Cook’s side slipped from fourth position to fifth after dropping from 112 ratings points to 106.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the final took place in Mumbai.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Ryan | 12 years ago | Reply

Final match was played in Kolkata and not in Mumbai.

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