Moeen Ali says England will have ‘to take more risks’ to keep their World Cup adventure alive

Moeen Ali insists England must be brave and take risks to prevent their Twenty20 World Cup adventure from coming to a crushing and premature end.

England face New Zealand on Tuesday and Sri Lanka in their final Group 1 matches on Tuesday, knowing they both need to win and hope their net run rate is good enough to qualify for the semi-finals.

And the razor-sharp situation is complicated by ongoing bad weather in Australia, which could play a big part in determining the outcome of a tight-knit group that, ahead of New Zealand’s crushing win over Sri Lanka on Saturday, killed all six teams. separated by only one dot.

England have had a disappointing campaign but can qualify with two wins out of two

Moeen, an increasingly influential figure in England’s cue line-up, has a simple solution to England’s predicament. He believes they need to come back to the forefront, which has served them so well in the past, and work their way out of trouble.

“We could win these two games and still miss something,” the England vice-captain said in the wake of Australia’s twisted duel here.

“But our job is to win them both and, if we can, win them comfortably. We can do that by playing our best cricket until the end of the tournament and I don’t see why we shouldn’t let go of caution.

“We just have to be brave and play the way we want to. That doesn’t mean slogging through, but playing as we can and showing why we were picked in the first place. If we had taken a little more risk at the top against Ireland, it could have been a different game. That’s what we have to do now and tell ourselves that four wins will get us the World Cup.”

Jos Buttler walks out after being sacked over England’s humiliating defeat to Ireland

England would have been in a much better position now had they not suffered that shocking defeat to Ireland at the MCG in another heavy rain match.

Moeen was the lone English batter to play fluently and had just hit inexperienced spinner Gareth Delany for 12 from three balls when the elements intervened to give Ireland a five-run DLS victory.

“I think if we had completed the over, I would have kept going after him and probably got us up front,” Moeen said. ‘I felt I was almost there. It was like ‘a few more balls and we’ll win here’ and it was a shame there wasn’t time for that.

“You never know when it will rain, but I thought in that situation we could have stopped a bit earlier and been more proactive. If we had gotten six more hits over the course of the innings, we would have won. But to be fair we played badly.’

Ali was the only English batter to play with any fluency when England suffered a shocking defeat

They can’t afford to be poor at Tuesday’s Gabba against a New Zealand side who put themselves on pole position in the group by beating Australia in their opening game and then beating Sri Lanka by 65 runs in Sydney yesterday, after a century of Glenn Phillips.

It will be a renewal of a rivalry that in 2019 saw England famously win the World Cup final with 50 wins, but saw the Kiwis beat them in the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an unfinished business, but they knocked us out last year and it hurt quite a bit,” Moeen said. New Zealand is a very dangerous side, one of the great teams, and we will have to play our best cricket.

“They’ve been unlucky not to win the trophies they could and should have won. They are just one of those sides who know what they are doing when it comes to tournaments, have a great captaincy in Kane Williamson and always seem to have their team’s balance right. It takes everything to beat them.’

England must hope their net run rate is good enough to qualify for the semi-finals

And so is Moeen who is likely to up the ranks when England are finally back on a cricket pitch on Tuesday, weather permitting in Brisbane. “There’s no real set position where I say ‘this is where I should play’ or ‘this is my favorite place,'” he said. “But I like to hit in situations where we have to go out and someone has to go. I enjoy that.

“Towards the end of Eoin Morgan’s reign I was almost a bit of a floater, at times when as soon as spinners came along he would pop up to me and say ‘get ready to go in’. And I kind of like that, not just because it faces spider, but because I like that feeling of rushing and just going outside. I think we’ll be a bit more proactive with the assignment.’

England will have to be proactive and at their best if this tournament is not to become a story of swampy underperformance this week.’

The Twenty20 World Cup has been disrupted throughout the tournament by bad weather