29 October - Lucknow - England Head Coach Matthew Mott post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
I don't know how much time you've had to speak to the guys now but can you sort of take us in and just tell us how painful it is at the moment losing all these games?
[Matthew Mott:]
You know haven't had a chat to the boys yet. Yeah, very painful I think we set out we knew it was going to be hard work today - India on their home patch and to be honest I was really pleased at the halfway mark. I thought it was definitely our best bowling and fielding effort. And we went out to bat with a lot of positivity about it being a very achievable total. There was a lot of dew out there as well. So, I thought, particularly after the start, we got none for 30 that we're well placed but anytime you lose four for ten you put yourself under pressure and chase and it unravelled again from there unfortunately.
[Reporter:]
Yeah, that unravelling, when it happens it's been happening faster. Are you sensing almost a fearfulness in the team that they can almost see the thing disappearing from them as soon as the first setback happens?
[Matthew Mott:]
No, not really. I think when you've seen that happen a couple of times recently, it does affect the confidence, no doubt. When you're winning, you can absorb a couple of wickets and seem to get through. But tonight, as I said, we're none for 30. I wasn't sure. We lost the wicket there. I wasn't sure about Joe's [Root] one, how pretty clear on the technology there was a little spike there, so I'm not sure why we didn't use that. But then it happened bang, bang and we're under pressure and they bowled extremely well. They were in their home conditions they did well and I think probably deserve a lot of credit the way they managed through that dew as well. I thought we tried to hold on and get some partnerships together but we just kept losing a wicket every time we looked like getting a bit of a foundation. So yeah, disappointing.
[Reporter:]
You guys have talked about recovering some pride, being hungry to sort of get some of that pride back. Is that changing now? We saw almost no chance of really improving things. Is it almost like it'd be better just to get home and draw a line under this one?
[Matthew Mott:]
No, not at all. I think, yeah, it's tough. I'm sick of coming up and speaking to you guys about the same thing, but that's what professional sport is. And we've got to keep pushing hard here. We've got a fair bit to play for to the back end of this tournament.
I think the way that we went out and fielded and bowled today showed the commitment of the group. And that's the main part of this. You've got to keep fronting up and commit, throw yourself around in the field. I thought we were brilliant there. And the first half we did our job the second half was one would rather forget and we've got to find a way.
There's some world-class players in there that unfortunately aren't scoring the runs that they're used to scoring.
[Reporter:]
It looks like you're going to need to finish top eight to qualify for the Champions Trophy, I know it's two years away or whatever but that's looking a bit of a stiff task in itself now that's got to be a concern.
[Matthew Mott:]
Yeah, I suppose to your point earlier it gives us a lot of focus that we need to make sure we can't you know just turn up. We've got to turn up and play and win those games. And we're obviously up against some good teams in those last few games as well. So, that's plenty of motivation for us to pick ourselves back up off the canvas and keep trying to throw punches.
[Reporter:]
I don't know if you've seen but Eoin Morgan said that given how badly the decisions have been made have gone and how England have gone away from the white ball cricket makes him think that something is going on in the dressing room. Is something going on?
[Matthew Mott:]
No, not really. I don't think that at all. I think anyone that's inside our tent at the moment would say that despite our results, we're an incredibly tight-knit unit, to the point where one of our, I said to the boys the other day, Dave Humphries, who's a former rugby international, was flabbergasted just how tight the unit was when he came in for a week to observe us, given that the results that we've had.
So, there's every opportunity when you're losing - to splinter and go separate ways. I can only say from my opinion the group's been incredibly strong in that part. If you see our training sessions, they're full of fun. People are putting their arm around each other, trying to help them. It's easy to do that when you're winning. It's a lot harder when you're losing. I'm proud that we keep trying to get up.
[Reporter:]
Just to follow that up, it's great that everyone's having a great time, but are you sure there's nothing going on? Eoin’s a pretty clued-up guy, he's got ears in the dressing room, I find it quite hard to believe that he'd be way off the mark with that?
[Matthew Mott:]
Yeah, no, Eoin’s entitled to his opinion. He's obviously been away for a couple of weeks with the birth of his child. He hasn't been in and around the rooms, but I'll certainly take that up with him and have a chat to him. We've got a really good relationship with him. So, if he's seeing something that I'm not, I'll definitely have that conversation.
[Reporter:]
There were some positives today that we probably shouldn't lose sight of entirely. Oh, that's nice. Chris Woakes bowled really well. Bowling through seven overs at the start. It must have been a really tough time for him. How has that been for him and how happy were you with how he came back from that today?
[Matthew Mott:]
Yeah, I'm very, very happy for Woakes. I think he obviously didn't start the tournament the way he would have liked. But Jos in particular as captain likes to reward guys that have done well over a long period of time. I think the faith that he showed, you know, he obviously missed the game, and I think that was probably timely for him just to work through some things in the nets, come back, and since he's come back, I think he's been excellent.
Even bowling at the back end, that's an unfamiliar role for him. And they were looking dangerous there that they could just put it beyond 250, and I thought we did really well, and Woakes is a big part of that. So definitely a positive.
I thought Dave Willey again was another one who has come into the side later in the tournament and is always underestimated but always delivers. So, a little cameo at the end with the bat.
So, look I think those guys are really good. I thought Rash bowled well as well and put plenty of pressure on. As I said, there's no problems in the first half. I thought we were a bit in your hand off for 230 with the conditions the way they were going to be tonight. But unfortunately, we couldn't deliver.
[Reporter:]
When did you know what the qualification procedure was for the Champions Trophy? When did you and the team learn what the qualification for the Champions Trophy was?
[Matthew Mott:]
About an hour and a half ago.
[Reporter:]
Right, that seems incredible to come into a major global event not knowing what the qualification for the next global event is doesn't it?
[Matthew Mott:]
Well, the ICC do change the rules quite a bit with qualification and to be honest I don't think it would affect in any way the way we've played in this tournament so it's not a big deal.
[Reporter:]
I'm sure you must have been asked this a few times, but just to know a little bit more, how has it all come so undone for the team which is the defending champion? Where have things gone wrong? And have you really thrashed it out with the players and the team?
[Matthew Mott:]
Well, yeah, I suppose the latest thing has been our batting, the thing that's gone wrong. There's no secret that we keep getting bowled out before that we get our full allotment of 50 overs. So that would be a big part of it.
I never really buy into the defending champions thing; I think everyone starts on the same points and we knew we would have to play out of our skin to qualify for the top four here. There's a lot of good teams here and a lot of teams that play really well in these conditions. So as a team coming over, we started with a lot of optimism, but it hasn't worked out. As we mentioned before, we've got a lot to still play for the end of this tournament.
[Reporter:]
Just wondering your observations on Jos and how he's been handling what's probably been the biggest challenge of his career and certainly his captaincy. What's he been like in the dressing room?
[Matthew Mott:]
I think he's been great to be honest. I think Jos is an incredibly deep thinker about the game. First and foremost, I think he's just disappointed with his own form of the bat. I think he felt like he came over here in really good form. He usually leads from the front and scores a lot of runs. So, I think that's probably been the hardest thing to deal with.
That dressing room's full of really good characters and guys with a lot of experience, and they've really helped a lot. I think Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Johnny Bairstow, Joe Root, guys like that have played around him a lot, have really tried to take the pressure off him. But like all of us, it's an incredibly difficult period. I think we won't forget this one for a long time. But what you do in elite sport is you've got to learn when you hit the canvas and you keep getting kicked while you're down, you store that away and you make sure you use that as motivation to keep getting better and making sure it doesn’t happen again and Jos is certainly in that boat.