{"id":293121,"date":"2023-10-26T14:25:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T14:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=293121"},"modified":"2023-10-26T14:25:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T14:25:41","slug":"england-at-end-of-cycle-in-odis-michael-atherton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/%d1%81ricket\/england-at-end-of-cycle-in-odis-michael-atherton\/","title":{"rendered":"England \u2018at end of cycle\u2019 in ODIs \u2013 Michael Atherton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former England captain Michael Atherton said the current one-day side could be \u201cat the end of the cycle\u201d after another poor batting display at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
England won the toss and elected to bat in a must-win group game against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, but collapsed to 156 all out with nearly seven overs remaining.<\/p>\n
Jos Buttler\u2019s side never looked capable of mounting an imposing target despite Moeen Ali\u2019s pre-match assertion that England would play aggressive cricket with no fear.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports pundit Atherton said: \u201cIt\u2019s all very saying what you want to do when you\u2019re struggling and down on confidence, it\u2019s not always easy to put those fine words and aspirations into practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all been there in teams that are low on confidence and are struggling. No team has a divine right to be at the top of its game all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Stokes (43) and openers Jonny Bairstow (30) and Dawid Malan (28) were the only batters to make any impression as wickets fell at regular intervals against a Sri Lanka side who had also won only one of their first four matches.<\/p>\n
Atherton added: \u201cWe\u2019ve looked at the factors over the last five games of this competition, but if you look a bit deeper you could argue this is a team at the end of the cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could argue that the lack of 50-over cricket and the lack of England\u2019s ability to put what they consider to be their best one-day team in 50-over cricket has camouflaged some of the weaknesses and decline that we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all come together in the performances we\u2019ve seen in Mumbai over the last couple of days and this one here in Bengaluru today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing Sign up to our free sport email […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n