England coach Ashley Giles admits his team’s World Twenty20 defeat against the Netherlands is “embarrassing” and says he shares the fans’ anger.
England went down to the Netherlands by 45 runs in their last group one match in the Super-10 stage, a repeat of their 2009 World Twenty20 defeat on home ground.
Stuart Broad’s men had threatened to be the dark horses in the group after beating pre-tournament favourites Sri Lanka on Thursday but their exit capped a miserable winter in which they were also crushed 5-0 in the Ashes in Australia.
Giles said having no chance of qualifying for the semis may have induced complacency in the team.
“Certainly complacency would be one of them. You can’t hide from it and it was embarrassing,” said Giles after the match.
England restricted the Netherlands to 133-5 in their 20 overs but were never in the hunt for the chase, bowled out for 88 in 17.4 overs.
Giles said he understood and shared the anger of the fans.
“Absolutely I share that anger. There are a lot of emotions flying at the moment.
“We are human beings and when that’s your line of work you should be angry and I understand why the supporters are angry. All we can do is apologise to the people watching at home.”
The coach also gave the Dutch their due.
“With all due respect to the Dutch because they played some good cricket in this competition. Clearly every time they go out and play, they play with pride and passion.”
Giles said England started on the wrong note.
“The messages were the same before the game and through the game. We had the same meetings and talked about concentrating on the job that needed to be done and then at half time making sure guys are in the right space,” he said.
“I thought we started the game poorly, I thought we were slow in the field and lacked intensity for them to be 47 for one after six overs.”
Giles said there had to be some personal responsibility among the players.
“Don’t get me wrong, when the guys go out there, there has to be some personal responsibility there as well, but we are a team, we stick together and we have all lost that match. It should hurt those guys as much as it hurts me and I hope it does.”
Giles, who is seeking the coach’s job in all formats, was unsure the result will hurt his chances.
“I don’t know, look, you will have to ask someone else. It never helps does it, losing to Holland?”
Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Michael Atherton rounded on the current side after they bowed out of the World Twenty20.
After England’s innings ended in the 18th over with a farcical run-out, Vaughan tweeted: “That sums it up…. #Garbage”.
This defeat was worse than England’s Lord’s loss to the non-Test Netherlands at the 2009 World Twenty20, a clash that at least went to the last ball.
Referring to that match, and the ‘minnows’ traditional bright orange shirts – colours adopted by England this tournament – Atherton said: “(England have been) tangoed again. Unbelievable.
“This is a team that is totally shot of confidence,” the former opener added.
“This has now been a six-month period, from the start of the Ashes … and this is a team absolutely devoid of confidence.
“This was bad – total disintegration in the Ashes, and a lack of improvement in the one-day game as well.”
Former England coach David Lloyd, Atherton’s fellow Sky pundit and also an ex-Lancashire and England opening batsman, was scathing about England’s latest in a line of dreadful displays.
“We have been diabolical all winter … we can’t get any worse than this,” Lloyd said.
“Brainless, shameful, totally unacceptable.”
