{"id":340808,"date":"2023-10-21T22:51:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T22:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340808"},"modified":"2023-10-22T00:01:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T00:01:03","slug":"buttler-blunder-leaves-englands-world-cup-on-life-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=340808","title":{"rendered":"Buttler blunder leaves England's World Cup on life support"},"content":{"rendered":"

England<\/a>'s quest for back-to-back Cricket World Cup<\/a> titles is on life support after a thumping 229-run loss<\/a> to South Africa<\/a> \u2013 their third in four games.<\/p>\n

As temperatures in Mumbai peaked at 36C, skipper Jos Buttler<\/a> took a lion's share of blame for the loss, admitting his choice to bowl first after winning the toss on a typically scorching hot and humid day was the wrong one.<\/p>\n

A 67-ball 109 from Heinrich Klaasen was the standout performance with the bat as the Proteas accumulated 7-399 from their 50 overs.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Selectors reveal where Head will bat on injury return<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'A day to forget': Records tumble as Stars rolled for 29<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Football world mourn loss of United great Sir Bobby Charlton<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supporting roles came from opener Reeza Hendricks (85) \u2013\u00a0 who was only playing because skipper Temba Bavuma picked up a stomach bug overnight \u2013 first drop Rassie van der Dussen (60), and Marco Jansen with a quickfire 75 not out from just 42 balls.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Klaasen and Jansen plundered 143 in the final 10 overs.<\/p>\n

In reply, England slumped to 7-84 in the 16th over as all five Proteas bowlers chipped in.<\/p>\n

Only a rapid 43 not out off just 17 balls from fast bowler Mark Wood and 35 from Gus Atkinson for a 70-run stand for what would turn out to be the ninth and final wicket made the score somewhat respectable.<\/p>\n

The loss leaves the 2019 champions languishing in ninth of 10 teams on the table.<\/p>\n

"I think you always reflect after games and question your decisions," Buttler said.<\/p>\n

\"Heinrich<\/p>\n

"With hindsight, with the physicality of that innings, potentially batting first would have been a better decision. It's a decision I took at the time. I thought it was the right one."<\/p>\n

England's other two losses came at the hands of the still undefeated New Zealand in the opening match, before a shock upset to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Butler said England can ill-afford another loss.<\/p>\n

"It certainly leaves us in a tough position. There's no room for error from here on in," he said.<\/p>\n

Watch every Australian Cricket World Cup match and other headline games live and free on Channel Nine and <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rashid\u00a0rids\u00a0of\u00a0Reeza\u00a0for\u00a0second\u00a0big\u00a0wicket\"<\/p>\n

"It's going to be incredibly difficult. We haven't left ourselves any margin from this point in.<\/p>\n

"But we'll keep the belief. We'll sit down and go again. That's all you can do in this situation."<\/p>\n

Klassen \u2013 who at one stage slumped to the ground \u2013 described batting in the conditions as "like running in a sauna".<\/p>\n

"I had to dig really, really deep there. I didn't have any energy left," he said.<\/p>\n

"My partner Marco played a big part of that \u2013 he told me that he's got me and that I'm not allowed to walk off the field if I don't score 100.<\/p>\n

\"Gus<\/p>\n

"It was like just breathing in hot air. Every time you try to run it's just sapping more and more energy and then at the end of the day your body just doesn't want to work with you anymore. It was just like almost running in a sauna for the whole innings.<\/p>\n

"But you've got to dig deep for your country as well, I've worked my whole life for it, so it's a great moment."<\/p>\n

England more or less have to win their next match against Sri Lanka on Thursday night to stay in contention.<\/p>\n

South Africa, meanwhile, sit third behind only New Zealand and India, and will play Bangladesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England's quest for back-to-back Cricket World Cup titles is on life support after a thumping 229-run loss to South Africa \u2013 their third in four […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340808"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340815,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340808\/revisions\/340815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/340810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}