lost yet another cricket final.
Even though this one didn’t end up as a 50 over game, rain reducing it to a T20 bash, they still couldn’t help themselves from choking.
When Cook went early and Bell was plodding along going nowhere fast it didn’t instil much confidence. Trott injected some momentum but was gone too quickly as was Root, both required to lift things with Bell’s ineptitude.
It wasn’t until Morgan and Bopara were at the crease things turned for the hosts. But even still they weren’t hitting the boundaries to make it a cruise. England’s failing for sometime, back in the ’92 World Cup final hitting the fielder rather than space between them was the prime reason for defeat.
Was it going to be a man of the match performance from Bopara after his excellent bowling display?
Well, no. Ishant Sharma came on to bowl the third last over with 28 required. Well after the initial dot ball of the over eight of those runs were knocked off with a six and then two wides as Sharma was imploding and England were finally on the brink. 20 from 15 should be easy with a bowler that was in complete breakdown as those wides were about as wide as you could get.
Two slow balls later and it was game over. Morgan and Bopara back in the hutch with 20 still required.
Two more followed with just three runs knocked off and it was left to Treadwell to score a six off the final delivery to win the game. A swing and a miss. And all of a sudden five overthrows England gave up in the Indian innings look awful costly.
Another final another choke – is it better to get there and choke or do a South Africa and choke trying to get there? But at least they’re not imploding like the Australians, sacking their coach just over a fortnight from the start of the Ashes. But then Pietersen will be back soon so England could still have a team meltdown.