The loss to India by five runs in the Champions Trophy final once again squashed England’s hopes of winning a 50-over ICC title. While addressing the media, Alastair Cook termed the defeat as his lowest point as captain. “We had high hopes coming into today of achieving something really special. We had the opportunity,” he said.
Although they had managed to restrict India to 129 in the rain-curtailed 20-over-a-side match, their batters failed to take them across the line in a tight finish. Reflecting on the game, he said, “Yeah, clearly from there (with England needing 20 runs off 16 balls and having six wickets in hand), you back yourself to win more times than you do to lose in that situation. But it shows you how quickly games can change in Twenty20 when you lose a couple of wickets. And the new guys coming in on that wicket are always going to find it quite hard to hit those runs. I mean, we got close; obviously that was a really good partnership from Morgs (Eoin Morgan) and Ravi (Bopara) to get us back into the game. But yeah, we would have probably won those games more times than not. But it’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Speaking about England’s performance in the 50-over format, the England captain said, “Obviously, we had a good tournament to get to the final. We would have liked, obviously, to play a 50‑over game. But look, if we had won the Twenty20 game, we wouldn't be saying that. We went through in the 24-over game against New Zealand, so you have to adjust. I'm proud of the way the lads have fought. We've been under a fair bit of pressure in this tournament. Quite a lot of criticism and flak has been thrown our way, yet we got to the final. We played some good cricket; we just couldn't quite get over the line today.”
Speaking about Ravi Bopara whose performance stood out in the all-important game, he said, “He's obviously an experienced cricketer, and I thought he’s handled himself really well in the tournament. He's batted to the situation all the time. He's bowled pretty well as well. I thought he was going to get us over the line today. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be.”
When asked what clinched the game for India, he replied, “I think anyone who saw those last few overs, saw how much the ball spun. They keep saying you need your batters in at the end to knock down that total. So I think credit to India. I thought they bowled very well on that wicket. Clearly, us as a batting unit, we'll be looking at ourselves going, ‘What could we have done better?’”
“Credit to all the guys that worked really hard to get us out there. Yes, it's a tough place at the moment. But, you know, we'll look at it when the emotions are out of it. We'll build again for 2015, the next global tournament.”
