England’s habit of ‘winning ugly’ in tight matches gives them World Cup 20 hope

Ano win, and if England emerged from the Wankhede without much effort after Sunday’s charged victory over Nepal, they did so with two points in their pockets and the cart still rolling. They have now won 11 of their 12 completed T20s in the past year and have been reminded in their last two matches that winning ugly can be more powerful than winning easy.

“I wouldn’t have wanted it to be as close as it was, to be honest,” Jacob Bethell said. “But this is my first World Cup. If you look at previous World Cups, you want to experience those little tough games, get a feel for it and just know that you have the confidence to get over the line. I think it won’t hurt us if we go through that.”

It was a superficially disappointing display, with some of the team’s most reliable players – notably Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer – struggling. But now there will be more confidence that even when the stars no longer shine, others will step up. And while England are a long way from winning this tournament, they also know that winning such encounters can be the mark of a champion.

It is rare for a team to win a World Cup without having played at least one such match. The 2024 champions India looked to be heading for a defeat against Pakistan in their second match before Jasprit Bumrah conceded just three in the penultimate match. In 2022, England had no room for error after losing a rain-affected match against Ireland, and in their final group match they edged past Sri Lanka with two balls to spare. In 2021, Australia needed just 119 to beat South Africa in their first match, and again managed to do so with two balls to spare.

It was notable that, in the days before their World Cup campaign got underway, the one match of their recent series that England kept referring to was not the 146-run walloping of South Africa in Manchester last September, or the stroll to victory over Ireland in Malahide with six wickets and almost three overs to spare, but the time they defended a paltry 128 at Pallekele.

It had indeed been their most recent outing, and the memories were the freshest. But it was also a poor performance, saved only in the final overs when they managed to make Sri Lanka, from the seemingly serene position of needing 39 off the last 42 balls with six wickets in hand, crumble. Bethell called it “a nice clean finish.” Sometimes the most beloved scorelines are not the ones that are written in the most style.

“That match was great,” said Harry Brook, speaking at his hotel in Mumbai before the start of this World Cup. “One thing we said afterwards was that the belief was there for every one of them. At one point we were way behind the game. We were drinking and we all said, ‘Look guys, anything can happen here. We get a few wickets and it all changes.’ We all had the belief to go out and win that game.”

What Brook may not have realized is how quickly he would have to tap into that reserve of confidence. Just five days later, and 2,000km away, his team was back on the field, chatting over another drinks break and reminding each other once again how quickly things could change.

“We’ve just talked about the fact that there’s still a long time to go in the game. Six overs,” Will Jacks said. “Everything happens quickly in T20 cricket. Six overs is still a very long time. Then we bowled two very good overs and suddenly we were in front. The game can change that quickly. I think Harry was very good at staying level-headed there. Jos [Buttler] also spoke. I think those experienced guys are crucial when such pressure situations arise.”

These drinks were taken after fourteen overs of Nepal’s chase. England, and many neutral observers, had believed their total of 184 was enough to secure a comfortable victory, but Nepal had just plundered 19 runs from what turned out to be Adil Rashid’s final over. From there, England turned the game around with two wickets and 16 runs, from the next three overs, to relinquish control. They had six balls to go, defending just ten, with the ball in the hands of Sam Curran.

“That last game in Sri Lanka gave us confidence,” Bethell said. “And when you have match winners in the team like Sam – he is a match winner, it doesn’t matter what he has done earlier in the match or previous matches. If you need him to win a match for you, he is there for you.”

For Liam Dawson, finally playing a World Cup match at the age of 35 and in his fifth tournament as a team member or traveling reserve, it had already been a momentous day. “We had tried to play a good match but fair play to Nepal, they had us in control,” he said. “It was far from a perfect performance, but when you come to a World Cup you just want to win. Sometimes you win ugly – you don’t play your best, but you just win.”

For England, Sunday was not a confident first step in their World Cup journey, but it could have been a useful one. “I think winning ugly is a great trait. It’s incredibly difficult to replicate the experience you gain,” Jacks said. “A match like this, where potentially we didn’t expect it to go until the last ball and it did. Hopefully, if we find ourselves in that situation in the rest of the tournament, which we certainly will at some point, we can look back on this experience and take it with us.”