England suffered the final embarrassment of a humiliating winter here today when they were bowled out for 88 by Holland to lose by 45 runs.
In some ways, the final match in England’s World Twenty20 campaign was a fitting end to a grim few months for a team who have been engulfed by crises on and off the field.
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said: “What a shambolic end to a shambolic performance to end a shambolic winter.”
Beaten skipper Stuart Broad said: “It sums up our winter. There was a lack of commitment and hunger in our shots. We didn’t deliver and it’s hugely disappointing.
“No one got going, no one took responsibility, fair play to the Netherlands, they took their chance. We said all the right things before the game, but we didn’t deliver it. There are no excuses. It was a relatively simple chase, but a shocking chase.
“We never got going. There were some extremely soft dismissals and it reminded me of the Ashes after we had lost. We have let the fans here and English cricket fans back home down.”
The match was meaningless in terms of the tournament since both sides had already been eliminated but for both it had a resonance beyond that. When the Dutch managed only 133 for five it seemed that a regulation win awaited England. Not so.
The start was crisp enough but as soon as Michael Lumb drove to cover in the third over it was a litany of errors, rashness and wickets.
Alex Hales, hero against Sri Lanka with a spectacular century, missed a pull and was bowled, Eoin Morgan flashed a drive to slip, Moeen Ali drove to cover, Jos Buttler was well short of the boundary with his swing to leg and was caught.
That simply left too much for the rest to do and Holland, sensing a great victory, kept their heads and won comfortably.
The final wicket saw James Tredwell run out for one which was, perhaps, a fitting end to variously poor campaigns in Australia, West Indies and finally Bangladesh. It was their second defeat to Holland in the World T20.
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A target of 134 should have been well within England’s grasp. Netherlands made impressive progress early in the piece and at 75 for one after 10 overs were looking handily placed for a score approaching 170. But England’s bowling was as a canny as it has been throughout the tournament. In the end, the Dutch had more than enough.
Netherlands 133-5 off 20 overs (Barresi 48, Myburgh 39; Broad 3-24) bt England 88 all out (Van Beek 3-9, Bukhari 3-12) by 45 runs
