'It's over': England coach Mott throws in towel
England's hopes of retaining their World Cup crown are over and they will be playing for pride in the rest of the tournament, coach Matthew Mott said after Thursday's humbling eight-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka left the holders ninth in the standings.
England are staring at a group stage exit after they were bowled out for 156 in the first innings in a low-scoring contest, falling to their fourth defeat in five matches.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The only team below them is the Netherlands, the sole non-test playing nation at the 10-team World Cup.
Although England are still mathematically in the running, with skipper Jos Buttler saying they "need a few miracles" to win their remaining games, their chances of finishing in the top four are slim and Mott said they were resigned to their fate.
"It's over now, I think. I'm not a mathematician, but with our net rate and too many teams who are going to take games off each other, we have to come to terms with that from now we're playing for a lot of pride," Mott told the BBC.
"We've got a lot to do there, we feel like we've let our fans down, our families and supporters and everyone in that dressing room. We haven't put our best foot forward and in professional sport that's what you're judged on.
"We have to use this in a really positive way, I've been part of teams that have won and part of teams that have lost. But when you lose like this, it has to sting and has to hurt, but something good has to come out of it."
Mott did not want to say if it was the end of an era for their ODI team but he admitted it was a missed opportunity after winning the T20 World Cup last year.
"For us, every time you play a World Cup you know it could be your last ... they don't come along very often," Mott added.
"In the last 12 to 18 months we've done well in the T20 World Cup and we've bombed out here. We need to get better.
"A T20 World Cup is the next thing on the agenda (in June 2024), from an ICC events point of view. We need to make sure we do our best preparation and hopefully we put in a much better performance."
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