WT20: Broad admits England players were not good enough to defend title

Colombo: England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad has admitted his players were not good enough to defend their Twenty20 World Cup title after crashing out of the ongoing tournament following a 19-runs defeat to host Sri Lanka in Pallekele on Monday.

After making three changes to the England team that beat New Zealand, panic quickly spread as the reshuffled batsmen flopped under the pressure of trying to chase 170 with Lasith Malinga in red-hot form. Malinga claimed 5-31 with only Samit Patel (67) and Graeme Swann scoring. Broad conceded that when players are not performing, defeat is always likely. "It was a ­disappointing end to our title defence. You look back and there are missed opportunities and things like that, but if we`re honest we`ve not quite been good enough," a leading daily quoted Broad, as saying "It`s been a learning experience for us and if you look at Paul Collingwood`s side it took him three World Cups to win it and find the right formula. We didn`t have enough people firing at the same time, but we`ve had glimpses of it from players," he added. That is what you get with younger guys, some days they produce brilliance and others are a bit average," he said. Broad further added: "There were some positives to take from this such as Steve Finn`s bowling. He played his role ­brilliantly and Samit looked world class against spin, which is great for English cricket." Sri Lanka scored 169-7 batting first and England was never in the game, faltering under pressure, which was one of the major reason behind their downfall. ANI