“Just one in 8 attempts” – Virender Sehwag reacts cheekily to Michael Vaughan's prediction on X after England lose to Afghanistan in 2023 World Cup
Former India swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag roasted ex-England captain Michael Vaughan for his prediction that England will reach the semifinals of the World Cup.
That came after the defending champions lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday, October 15. It was England’s second defeat in three games at the marquee ICC event.
Vaughan, though, didn’t mention whether he was sharing his thoughts about cricket or the ongoing 2023 Rugby World Cup. He wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter):
“England in the World Cup semis,” with several raising hands emojis.
Sehwag responded by pointing out how many times England have failed to reach the World Cup semifinals while adding 2023 edition of the tournament to it:
“Not in 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2023.”
For the uninitiated, England had won the 2019 World Cup under Eoin Morgan’s captaincy. They won the final against New Zealand by boundary count after a super-over tie.
“They outplayed us today” – Jos Buttler after England lost to Afghanistan in World Cup match
England captain Jos Buttler credited Afghanistan for their win in the 2023 World Cup match. He, however, said that the defeat has hurt them, adding that they need to reflect on what went wrong with six games remaining ahead of the semifinals. He said in the post-match conference:
“Disappointing to win the toss and concede that many, me missing that first ball down the leg side set the tone. Credit to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. It came down to execution. We weren’t quite at the level we’d like to be with both bat and ball."
"They have some fantastic bowlers. The dew didn’t come in as much as we expected. The ball held up a bit, too. They bowled dead straight and kept the stumps in play. We just weren’t quite good enough.”
He continued:
“You got to let these defeats hurt. There’s no point in getting over things too quickly. We need to reflect. There’s a lot of character in this group. We need to show a lot of resilience and come back stronger. We need to have guys being able to perform under pressure, and that’s what all of us will be working hard towards.”
England previously lost the opening game against New Zealand by six wickets. They, however, managed to win the second game by 137 runs versus Bangladesh.
Jos Buttler and Co. will next play South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on October 21.