SYDNEY: The mere suggestion that England are contemplating the ramifications of a potential loss to Afghanistan is in indication of how damaging the 2015 World Cup campaign has been on Eoin Morgan’s squad.

Paul Farbrace, England’s assistant coach, faced a news conference ahead of Friday’s inconsequential Pool ‘A’ encounter against Afghanistan to answer questions about the team’s last match of the tournament.

Neither team can reach the quarter-finals, with just one win apiece. England crashed out of contention with a 15-run loss to Bangladesh on Monday in Adelaide, another capitulation after heavy defeats to co-hosts Australia and New Zealand and a nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka.

The review and fallout of the group-stage exit will wait until the team gets back to England, Farbrace said.

“For now, I promise you, the only focus is trying to get us in a great position where we can win tomorrow’s game. And tomorrow’s game, if losing the other day to Bangladesh was terrible, we couldn’t possibly measure what it would be like if [Afghanistan beat England] because that would be horrendous,” Farbrace said.

“Our job now is to make sure we give ourselves the best chance, clear heads and go and play proper cricket tomorrow [Friday].”

Both teams have beaten Scotland in the group stage, hardly the return England were expecting after spending months preparing the squad specifically for the World Cup and reaching the final of the recent international tri-series to Australia.

Farbrace said the loss to Bangladesh had taken a toll on the team.

“We’ve all felt the huge disappointment. We came here wanting to give it a go and really play some exciting cricket and we haven’t done that,” he said. “We got blown away in the first two games and I don’t think we’ve really recovered from that. There has been a lot said about perhaps our nervousness and the tension that we’re playing with. I think it’s hard to argue against that.”

Tournament newcomers Afghanistan have nothing to lose. They already have posted their first win at a World Cup, an achievement that sparked celebrations from Afghans around the world.

There have been some heavy defeats, including the record loss to four-time champions Australia in Perth last week, but the Afghan team remains upbeat. While some may have conceded they were slightly overawed by Australia, paceman Hamid Hassan said there was never any fear when they approached games.

“Afghan never scared, never scared,” Hamid responded to questions about being overwhelmed in matches against the Test-ranked teams.

Hamid has taken seven wickets in the tournament and has been one of the fan favourites with his distinctive face paint in the pattern and colours of the national flag.

“No, no fears, no nothing,” he said. “We have to play always brave. So we’ll play tomorrow brave.”

Teams (from):

ENGLAND: Eoin Morgan (captain), James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Joe Root, James Taylor, James Tredwell.

AFGHANISTAN: Mohammad Nabi (captain), Afsar Zazai, Usman Ghani, Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hasan, Javed Ahmadi, Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Nawroz Mangal, Shapoor Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah Shafiq.

Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and Sundaram Ravi (India).

TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (South Africa).

Match referee: David Boon (Australia).

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

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