Mark Wood said he was “angry and disappointed” as England fell to a shock defeat against Ireland in the T20 World Cup after a hugely underwhelming performance with the bat and in the field. “We were off, they were on and they deserved to win,” he said.
Ireland won by five runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method after rain fell in the 15th over of England’s innings. The match on Friday against Australia, also in Melbourne and with a similar weather forecast, thus becomes a virtual eliminator, with neither side able to afford defeat.
“If you don’t play well you can get punished,” Wood said. “It doesn’t have to be the No 1 team in the world, it can be any team. We knew the intensity had to be there and the first 10 overs that intensity wasn’t there. That is what’s most important. We set high standards and want to be consistent. To win competitions you’ve got to maintain those standards and we weren’t at that level.”
Though Ireland have defeated England before, including at the 50‑over World Cup in 2011, their captain, Andrew Balbirnie, said this stood as the greatest victory. “We’ve never had a result like this,” he said.
“We came into this round knowing that any win we got would be a huge achievement. You look through their XI. I looked through it this morning and at the match-ups and part of me was struggling to understand if they show up how we compete with them.”
New Zealand's Super 12 match against Afghanistan at the T20 World Cup was abandoned on Wednesday without a ball bowled due to rain.
The rain which caused an early end to England v Ireland in Melbourne did lot relent, with both sides having to settle for a point as no play was possible. New Zealand are top of Group 1 on three points, with Afghanistan bottom with one point. Ireland's surprise win over England leaves both sides on two points, along with Sri Lanka and Australia.
Rain could influence the standings further on Friday with a poor forecast for Melbourne, where Australia play England after Ireland meet Afghanistan. The Black Caps coach, Gary Stead, said that weather worries have made their opening win over the hosts all the more vital.
'I definitely think it helps,' he said. 'Ireland's win also shows there are no easy games right through the tournament either. So that's good for cricket. It does make our pool a little bit unpredictable.'
Jos Buttler, the England captain, was out for a duck two balls into his side’s innings, and said the defeat would sting his players. “We should let it hurt,” he said. “Days like today are really, really disappointing and you’ve got to feel that. There’s no point in saying let’s sweep it under the carpet and move on.
“It wasn’t we were a little bit off. We were just too far off, it took us too long to get to the level we needed to be.”
