England all but resigned to World Cup exit - Mott

Permutations, combinations and mathematical equations aside, England are all but resigned to the fact that their World Cup defence is over.

Their eight-wicket drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka left them with more questions than answers, which does not auger well for a quest to win the next four remaining matches, which is the bare minimum required with other results also needing to go their way, if England are to progress.

Matthew Mott, England's head coach, was realistic about their chances of squeezing into the knockouts immediately after the defeat in Bengaluru which left them with just one win from five games at the tournament so far.

"Mathematically, we'd have to have a lot of things go our way," Mott told Sky Sports. "As I said leading up today, we could control it from there, but it certainly hasn't done our net run-rate any help at all and, depending on others… we'll keep fronting, we'll keep treating each game in isolation and try and salvage some really good stuff out the back end of this. But realistically, we're in bit of trouble, for sure."

England were bowled out for a paltry 156 with Ben Stokes their highest scorer, reaching 43 before he became one of Lahiru Kumara's 3 for 35 as England slumped to their fifth straight loss to Sri Lanka at ODI World Cups. In a match lasting just 59 overs all up, Sri Lanka were 23 for 2 in the sixth over of their reply but an unbroken stand worth 137 between Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama saw them past their target with 24.2 overs to spare.

"Coming into this match we knew it was do or die," Mott said. "I thought we started really well with the bat and were looking quite positive, but we kept losing wickets in succession and we were at least 100 to 120 short of what would have been a good score on that wicket."

In terms of working out what had gone wrong, Mott said he and captain Jos Buttler were still scratching their heads after also losing to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa.

"I don't know," Mott said. "I just had a quick chat with Jos then. It's really hard to explain. I think we had a good series leading in against New Zealand. We came over here full of confidence with I think world-class players who have won a lot of World Cups and for whatever reason, we seem to have a few players out of form at the wrong time, and it's hurt us dearly.

"It's going to be a very sombre dressing-room tonight. We came here full of hope and hoping to turn things around and we were well off the mark and it's going to be a real test of character to get through the next few weeks and make sure that we can salvage something out of this campaign."

England made three changes to their starting XI for a second match in a row, bringing in Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes for Harry Brook, Gus Atkinson and Reece Topley, the latter having returned home after fracturing a finger in the loss to South Africa. But Mott said selections were the least of England's woes.

"We always reserve the right to pick players for different conditions," he said. "We admitted last time we probably got the balance wrong and so therefore we went back to the same balance that we've had before and look, when you when you lose by that margin, I don't think it's about a couple of small selections here and there.

"I think it's a collective and we've all got to take responsibility for the sub-par effort in this campaign, and everyone's going to come from the hills to dissect what we've done wrong but we'll make sure we find some positives, we learn from it - I think we can, I think we can we can get better in everything that we do, whether it is selection, whether it is the way we prepare, and make sure that this is not wasted, because it's going to hurt a lot."

Buttler cut a dejected figure at the post-match presentations and his reflections on the side's performance aligned with those of the coach, including on team selections.

"Selection is obviously it's something you want to be consistent with, build that sort of trust and longevity, but selection isn't our problem at the moment," Buttler said. "The performances as individuals and as a team, whoever's been on the field so far in this tournament, has been short of the standards we set ourselves.

"It's incredibly tough, an incredibly disappointing tournament. Not just short of our best, but a very long way. So as captain, you feel that a lot and I'm disappointed for myself and all the boys that we've not showed a good account of ourselves.

"There is no clear answer at the moment. If there was one golden nugget that we were obviously not doing, we'd try and pick that up, but I can't fault the guys' efforts, we're just playing a long way short of our best and it starts from the front. As captain you want to lead from the front and play well and the guys tuck in behind you and I've been a long way short of my best and [that's] now filtered through the rest."

Buttler added that playing for "personal pride" would be the aim going forward.

"You don't become a bad player overnight, you don't become a bad team overnight and I think that's probably the biggest frustration. We've been so far short of the standards that we set ourselves and for no particular obvious reason," he said. "I know you probably think there must be something, 'what is it?' But I can't put my finger on it at the moment.

"Whatever happens going forward in this tournament, the rest of the matches, we want to get back to playing some really good cricket and what will be will be."