3 hours ago
3
If there was one thing the players of England and Italy agreed on at the end of a hugely entertaining and, from an English perspective, frequently concerning match at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, it was that the situation favoured their opponents.
England felt the Italians, unburdened by expectation, enjoyed a free hit. “It’s not an easy game, because all the pressure is on us,” said Jamie Overton. “It’s not easy for them either, but they can go and show what they can do.”
Meanwhile Italy felt the English, with their greater tournament experience, always held the upper hand. “They’re an amazing outfit, the English side,” said Grant Stewart, whose 23-ball 45 resuscitated Italy’s chances as the game neared its conclusion. “I think where the game was won and lost was in those big moments. We’re not exposed to them as often as they are, and it showed. If we played more of these games so we’re exposed to those situations I think we’d probably be better equipped but at the moment it’s just not to be. They outskilled us and they won the big moments.”
Even without having a much larger talent pool and several of the world’s most highly-regarded white-ball cricketers, in theory simply by playing in them so regularly England should be better equipped for big tournament cricket than Italians appearing in their first.
“We were playing sub-regionals not that long ago on astroturf wickets in Rome,” Stewart said. “So to be here at Eden Gardens and the Wankhede Stadium playing against teams like England, it’s what dreams are made of.”
But then a lot of the English experience seems also to be fairly useless. Overton was playing in just his third World Cup game, representing 1.5% of his 195 senior T20s. For Will Jacks the figure is 2.8%, seven out of 247. Even Jos Buttler, who has played in 39 matches at T20 World Cups dating back to 2012, has banked 92% of his T20 appearances either in bilateral international series, with little on the line except professional or national pride, or on the seemingly endless franchise treadmill.
For all that World Cups are held more frequently than many would like, experienced players can still be discombobulated by the stress and unfamiliarity of a genuinely meaningful T20, even against opponents they would expect to routinely beat.
“There’s always a little bit more nerves because there’s something more on it,” Overton said. “But we’re trying to go into it with the mindset of being as brave as we can be, and take the game on as much as we can. We’ve got a saying among the group: ‘No one’s going to be braver than us,’ the way we’re going to go about playing our cricket. It might not work every time but we’re going to give it everything we can.”
Whether England were favoured or disadvantaged it is not a situation they will face again, with Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan their likely opponents in the Super 8s. What they hope will help them is their familiarity with, and recent success in, a country where they won five of six matches immediately before the World Cup started, including three T20s at Pallekele where they play their first two games.
“We’re going back to a ground we’ve got a good record at, certainly in the last month,” Overton said. “We’ve got some good feelings going back there and fingers crossed we can put in a couple of good performances.”
They might have won three games but there have been none of those so far, and if inspiration does not strike soon, disaster will. “We’ve still got a few things to work on,” Overton deadpanned, though he was unable to identify them. “I think we just haven’t quite fired with either bat or ball. We’ve done the job of qualifying. We’ve not been at our best and we know there’s plenty more cricket in us. Fingers crossed we can show in the next three games what we can do.”
There have been quibbles with the organisation of this tournament, mainly down to the last-minute schedule announcement and sometimes chaotic ticketing arrangements, but all of England’s games so far, and most notably the two in Kolkata against associate nations, have been brilliantly supported. There were in excess of 20,000 in Eden Gardens on Monday, many of whom found the spirit shown by the Italians intoxicating.
“There were some moments where you step back and just go: ‘This is amazing,’” said the Italy batter Justin Mosca. “They had the lights going and the Italia chant coming up. There was one moment when Greg [Stewart] hit one of the biggest sixes I’ve seen in history, and the lights were up, and it was amazing. There were multiple times, but that was one that took me aback.”
Against Italy, as against Scotland 48 hours earlier, it was clear that local supporters prefer to back the underdog. At least, given their displays so far, England should have most of the neutrals on their side from now on.
