{"id":485725,"date":"2026-02-17T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485725\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:27:08","slug":"englands-slow-burn-t20-world-cup-heads-for-super-8s-with-campaign-yet-to-ignite-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485725\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s slow-burn T20 World Cup heads for Super 8s with campaign yet to ignite | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s Eden Gardens<\/a>, it was that the situation favoured their opponents.<\/p>\n

England felt the Italians, unburdened by expectation, enjoyed a free hit. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy game, because all the pressure is on us,\u201d said Jamie Overton. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for them either, but they can go and show what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Italy felt the English, with their greater tournament experience, always held the upper hand. \u201cThey\u2019re an amazing outfit, the English side,\u201d said Grant Stewart, whose 23-ball 45 resuscitated Italy\u2019s chances as the game neared its conclusion. \u201cI think where the game was won and lost was in those big moments. We\u2019re not exposed to them as often as they are, and it showed. If we played more of these games so we\u2019re exposed to those situations I think we\u2019d probably be better equipped but at the moment it\u2019s just not to be. They outskilled us and they won the big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even without having a much larger talent pool and several of the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were playing sub-regionals not that long ago on astroturf wickets in Rome,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cSo to be here at Eden Gardens and the Wankhede Stadium playing against teams like England, it\u2019s what dreams are made of.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Italy batter Grant Stewart on his way to a 23-ball 45 against England in Kolkata. Photograph: Debarchan Chatterjee\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a little bit more nerves because there\u2019s something more on it,\u201d Overton said. \u201cBut we\u2019re 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\u2019ve got a saying among the group: \u2018No one\u2019s going to be braver than us,\u2019 the way we\u2019re going to go about playing our cricket. It might not work every time but we\u2019re going to give it everything we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> where they play their first two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going back to a ground we\u2019ve got a good record at, certainly in the last month,\u201d Overton said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some good feelings going back there and fingers crossed we can put in a couple of good performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

They might have won three games but there have been none of those so far, and if inspiration does not strike soon, disaster will. \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a few things to work on,\u201d Overton deadpanned, though he was unable to identify them. \u201cI think we just haven\u2019t quite fired with either bat or ball. We\u2019ve done the job of qualifying. We\u2019ve not been at our best and we know there\u2019s plenty more cricket in us. Fingers crossed we can show in the next three games what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Overton celebrates after taking the wicket of Harry Manenti at Eden Gardens. Photograph: Pankaj Nangia\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some moments where you step back and just go: \u2018This is amazing,\u2019\u201d said the Italy batter Justin Mosca. \u201cThey had the lights going and the Italia chant coming up. There was one moment when Greg [Stewart] hit one of the biggest sixes I\u2019ve seen in history, and the lights were up, and it was amazing. There were multiple times, but that was one that took me aback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against Italy, as against Scotland 48 hours earlier<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there was one thing the players of England and Italy agreed on at the end of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-485725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}