Chris Woakes backs England to bounce back from Pakistan defeat
"It's unlikely any team will go through the tournament unbeaten."
Wednesday 5 June 2019 10:39, UK
Chris Woakes says England's narrow defeat to Pakistan in their second World Cup match was by no means a "car crash" and confidence remains high in the camp.
Hosts England fell 14 runs short of chasing down a target of 335 despite centuries from Joe Root and Jos Buttler - captain Eoin Morgan left to rue an earlier sloppy fielding display, that, in his estimation cost his side 15-20 runs.
Not that England didn't have high points in the field - Woakes bagging four catches, including a fine diving effort to remove Imam-ul-Haq - and the 30-year-old says standards will again be high in Sunday's clash against Bangladesh, at Sophia Gardens.
"By no means was the fielding a car crash but it was the difference in the game," Woakes said.
"We didn't field as well as we can and probably left 20 runs out there. It was just one of those days where we fumbled a few, probably dived over a couple.
"Fielding creates momentum for a team; if you're fielding well, constantly taking diving stops, stopping those twos and putting the batsman under pressure then it makes a difference.
"A few days ago [against South Africa] we were putting in an unbelievable performance, so if you drop below that you're going to be a little bit disappointed. We're obviously a very good fielding team, we've proved that over the past few years, and this was just an off day.
"We proved our standards at the Oval. We'll meet up in Cardiff, go through our routines and try to meet those same standards."
Woakes also suggested that the 10-team round-robin format of the competition did not lend itself to long undefeated streaks.
"It's unlikely any team will go through the tournament unbeaten and if they do it's a hell of an effort," the Warwickshire all-rounder added.
"We're confident coming into every game, we know we can beat any team on our day, but the beauty of this tournament is anyone can.
"You're going to have ups and downs form-wise. Sometimes it's about how you bounce back. We're looking to play our best cricket every game, as much as we can, this wasn't it but we're looking to bring it back in Cardiff.
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"We saw unbelievable performances from Joe and Jos, two great hundreds deserving of winning the game for England. We just fell short but it's a good thing that we can get scores like that from the position we were in."
Watch England's third match of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup live on Sky Sports Cricket World Cup this Sunday from 9.30am.
