Birmingham: England captain Alastair Cook could not hide his disappointment as he reflected on his team’s dramatic ICC Champions Trophy final defeat by India here on Sunday night.
The skipper had almost ended England’s 38-year wait for a global 50-over tournament victory, but his team fell short by a mere five runs in a match that was reduced by rain to 20 overs per side, prompting Cook to admit that it was his lowest moment as leader of the side.
“I think as England captain it was my lowest moment,” he said. “We had high hopes coming into the match of achieving something really special. We had the opportunity. All credit to all my guys that worked really hard to get us there. Our dressing room is a tough place to be at the moment. We’ll build again for 2015, the next global tournament.”
The difference between the winner and the loser was just five runs, and England had gifted India that many through an overthrow from Tim Bresnan. But Cook refused to pin the blame on that one incident.
“You can start looking at all these little things when you lose by such a tight margin,” Cook said. “I’m sure the bowlers must be thinking now ‘why did I bowl that ball that went for four’ as well. It’s a very dangerous game if you start doing that, and the same with the batters. We might have given them those extra runs there, but I’d much rather back a guy who can run and attack the ball like he [Bresnan] did.”
The England captain found it hard to describe how his team lost from a position where they needed just 20 runs from 16 balls with six wickets in hand. “You back yourself to win more times than you do to lose in that situation,” he said. “But it shows you how quickly games can change in Twenty20 when you lose a couple of wickets. 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.
“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. We as a batting unit, we’ll be looking at ourselves wondering what could we have done better to win it.”
Cook now wants his players to recharge their batteries and get ready for the Ashes series against Australia, which starts next month. “All the guys have a few days off and we’ll have to use that,” he said. “It’s been a pretty hectic start to the summer. It’s going to get busier and busier. So we have to recharge our batteries as well. It’s [the Ashes] always a different feeling, different kit and stuff. Clearly the Ashes is here.”
