Visits: 5
Sam Drury
Last Updated: 03/06/19 7:13pm
It is already an iconic image.
Ben Stokes facing the Oval crowd, arm raised, with a sea of faces staring back at him wide-eyed. Stunned by what they had just seen.
That remarkable catch – “one of the greatest catches of all time!” – was the perfect way to start the Cricket World Cup. An England star on day one of a home tournament producing a moment that will be replayed again and again and again all around the world for years to come.
It also capped a sublime performance from England in the field; every catch taken, near-flawless ground fielding, and the result was a South African batting line-up fully aware that every run would have to be earned.
10:09 “Right from ball one, they looked on. When you looked out from our commentary box and onto the field, England looked like they had intensity, they looked they had energy out in the field,” Shane Warne told Sky Sports after the game.
In short, England were on it. They were a slick, well-drilled fielding machine. It was Eoin Morgan’s England to a tee; the aggression and positivity of their batting is widely acknowledged but those traits are just as evident in their fielding. They have been for some time.
All of which makes their showing at Trent Bridge on Monday all the more surprising.
From the very first over, that sharpness in the field was lacking. It began with a fumble from Jofra Archer at fine leg before Morgan let one through in the covers next ball. In the grand scheme of things, they were minor errors but the tone had been set.
For the next 49 overs, England were unrecognisable from the side that triumphed at The Oval four days ago. A costly dropped catch from Jason Roy was the most glaring but that was symptomatic of an innings strewn with errors: fumbles galore, needless shies at the stumps, overthrows.
The sloppiness in the field was contagious – calmness and conviction turned to tetchiness, irritability and frustration – both from the fielders and the bowlers, most notably Archer. The Barbados-born fast bowler was already irked by a couple of wide calls from the umpires and the less-than-stellar fielding off his bowling did nothing to rectify his mood.
“I don’t think it’s the pressure or anything like that. They’ve just had a day where they weren’t quite switched on,” Warne said. “Pakistan showed that if you have that in this tournament, you’re going to get punished.”
It is important to stress that at this stage, as Warne suggests, this is just a one-off, a blip. England have not suddenly become a poor fielding side. But it is a very timely reminder of how quickly things can change.
The only positive for England is that their misstep came so early in the tournament, giving them ample time to put things right. Come the business end, they are unlikely to be let off the hook. They discovered that two years ago in the Champions Trophy, when they cruised through the group stages only to crash out in the semi-finals. One bad performance, on that occasion with the bat, and that was it.
In the two years since, England have addressed the issues that cost them that day against Pakistan. The problems in the field at Trent Bridge should be significantly easier to fix, given what we have seen from them previously, and they can ill afford a repeat performance later in the competition.
Given that they finished on 334 and that even twin hundreds from Joe Root and Jos Buttler were not enough to get England home, it is fair to suggest that the game was lost elsewhere.
Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka
June 4, 2019, 10:00am
Live on 
Morgan and England won’t need to be told where that was. Now they have to put it right, and quickly, or risk throwing away the optimism over their World Cup chances.
Watch every game of the ICC Cricket World Cup live on Sky Sports Cricket World Cup, with Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka from 10am on Tuesday.
