Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali have admitted that England were thoroughly outplayed during their T20 World Cup defeat to Australia.
Having had to settle for a draw in a rain-hit match with Scotland earlier in the week, England were under pressure to deliver against their fierce rivals on Saturday.
However, Australia were ruthless with the bat in setting up victory in Barbados, compiling 201-7 before restricting their opponents to just 165-6 in their reply.
Australia reached 70-1 off the first five overs, Travis Head (34 off 18) and David Warner (39 off 16) setting the tone, and the big-hitting continued throughout the innings with 13 maximums being struck in total.
Jofra Archer (1-28) was England's most economical bowler and it appeared to have kept his side in the match, as Phil Salt (37) and Buttler (42) put on 73 in seven overs.
Nevertheless, wickets then began to fall at regular intervals and the game was effectively up when Moeen (25) departed with England on 128-5, still requiring 74 runs from 26 balls.
Australia beat England by 36 runs 🔥
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 8, 2024
England yet to win a match this tournament 😬
Australia keep up their 100% record 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/jOjvLY9k5i
What did Buttler, Moeen have to say?
Speaking to BBC Test Match Special, Buttler and Moeen both hinted that, while England must assess what went wrong, they need to think proactively about how to turn things around.
Buttler said: "I thought we were outplayed today by Australia. They played really well in the powerplay and put us under a lot of pressure straight away.
"We know the position we're in. It's exactly laid out for us how we need to go about it. We can review this game and move on and plan for the next one."
Moeen added: "I just felt that Australia were better than us on the day in all three facets. They were smarter than us with the ball and used the conditions really well.
"We've just got to be a bit more precise and when we come on to bowl. You have to get in and bowl your ball straight away and try and make something happen and not hope something will happen. We need to defend when we need to defend and attack when we need to attack."
What now for England?
Although England will back themselves to defeat Oman and Namibia in their remaining two fixtures, they will require help from elsewhere to finish in the top two of Group B.
Scotland already have a far superior net run-rate to England (0.736 to -1.8) and that will also need to be overturned as a bare minimum if Scotland defeat Oman on Sunday.
England are not back in action until they face the same opponents on Thursday, potentially facing a four-point deficit with two games to play, while Scotland's concluding fixture is against Australia.
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