Former England batter Mark Butcher slammed English batters after their mundane performances in the first ODI against South Africa at Headingley, Leeds on Tuesday. The home team was bowled out for 131 runs in 24.3 overs after they were put into bat by South African captain Temba Bavuma.
England opener Jamie Smith top-scored with 54 runs, but barring him, none of the other batters could get going. Six England batters were dismissed without even reaching the double-digit mark and it was an insipid performance from Harry Brook’s team.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Butcher remarked, “The extraordinary thing, I think, for me, and the worrying thing for me about England’s batting in one-day international cricket … is that they do not have a sort of an absorption button.”
“You know what, opposition is going all right here at the moment. We got off to a bit of a flyer. The opposition have found something length-wise or whatever that is going to make it a little bit more tricky for us to carry on going at seven or maybe push the scoring rate that little bit higher,” he added.
Butcher said England can demolish any bowling line-up in the last 10-15 overs if they have wickets in hand.
He continued, “And then we have got enough players with enough skill and enough power to then make an absolute mess of any (bowling) line up when it comes to the last 15 to 20 overs.”
The former England number three said the hosts were not playing against a high-quality pace attack after they crumbled like a pack of cards.
“You know what I mean? We weren’t playing against (Malcolm) Marshall, (Michael) Holding, (Joel) Garner, et cetera, et cetera, who blew us away by virtue of unplayable bowling. We played some horrendous shots. Got no sort of responsibility being held by any of those fantastic, fantastic players England have in that middle order, to say, you know what, we can absorb for a little while,” he added.
“Let us get ourselves back in and have a reassessment at some point and put a score on the board that our bowlers have a chance of bowling at. None of those things happen, you lose the game,” he concluded.
The second ODI between England and South Africa will be played at the Lord’s, London on Thursday.
