World Twenty20: Back to the nets for bamboozled England

Captain Broad plays down embarrassing loss to India.

COLOMBO: A chastened England will resume their faltering defence of the tournament in the Super Eights desperate to find a way to tackle spin after crashing to their biggest loss in the format.

India spinners sent Stuart Broad’s men packing for just 80 – their lowest total in the format – in their final group match to inflict a 90-run defeat. Luckily, the capitulation came in a match of no consequence but the failure will be of great concern to Broad.

“Any defeat is frustrating,” said Broad. “But it does not change our destiny a huge amount. Knowing that it doesn’t — apart from having to maybe face a few more spinners in the nets – is nice.”

Broad also brushed aside suggestions that the team missed their best player of spin bowling — axed batsman Kevin Pietersen.

“We’ve got these 15 guys here and we’ve known that all along. We did not perform well with the bat and it’s important we focus on what we did wrong.”

Dhoni happy with ‘problem of plenty’

Meanwhile, India captain MS Dhoni heads into the next round delighted to have the enviable problem of which player to leave out.

Spinner Harbhajan Singh marked his return with four for 12 and Piyush Chawla took two for 13. With Rav Ashwin, Harbhajan and Chawla fighting for the spinners’ spots and a settled batting order, Dhoni said his team was well prepared.

“We do have a problem of plenty,” said Dhoni. “But I can assure you, a problem of plenty is better than not having that one extra guy. But bigger teams await us and we need to be consistent. In every match, we have to be at our best. Hopefully, we will do that in the next three matches.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2012.