Liam Livingstone feels England "did not deserve to lose" against Australia in their Champions Trophy 2025 opener.
England have to now win both their matches – against Afghanistan and South Africa – to stand a chance of qualifying for the next stage. South Africa and Australia are frontrunners from Group B, with wins each and positive net run rates.
England's five-wicket loss to Australia, with 15 balls to spare, gave them a negative net run rate of 0.475. At the innings break, they wouldn't have expected to be in such a position, having hit 351-8, the highest score in Champions Trophy history.
That was until Australia chased it down, their second-highest target in ODI history.
Also read – Explained: The results and net run rate swing England need to qualify for Champions Trophy semi-finals
However, Livingstone, who made 14 in 17 and picked up a wicket in the clash, felt that England did not deserve to lose.
"We did a hell of a lot really well, and I don't personally think that performance deserved to lose yesterday," he told BBC Sport. "There were a couple of moments in the game that we probably lost, but I felt like we were ahead in the game. At the end of the day, if you come out at the wrong side of the results... yeah, we've got two more games in the Champions Trophy group stage. We know we have to win both games. It's pretty simple.
Match 4, Australia vs England
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"What do we need to get that win – if we keep producing what we did yesterday, we're a hell of a long way to doing that. Just refine a few different skills: maybe, we could have gotten 15 or 20 more with the bat, but then again, would that have been enough, who knows? We're doing a hell of a lot really well, [got to] keep going with that"
England's next fixture is against Afghanistan, the team that beat them the last time they met in the format, at the 2023 ODI World Cup. Livingstone is banking on England's high pace to do the damage against Afghanistan.
"They're not used to facing the likes of Jofra (Archer) and Woody (Mark Wood) every day," Livingstone said, "so we feel that's a massive weapon that we've got. I feel we did a lot pretty well with the bat yesterday, so the lads are confident, they have a lot of confidence in each other. And ultimately, that's what you need: keep believing in each other".
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