Vice-captain Luke Sugg believes England are well placed to qualify for the Blind World Cup semi-finals despite suffering back-to-back defeats in South Africa.
Ross Hunter’s Visually Impaired side have struggled to build on a comfortable victory over the hosts, suffering heavy defeats to Twenty20 champions India and World Cup holders Pakistan in consecutive days.
However, with three group matches remaining, all-rounder Sugg is confident England can still reach their pre-tournament target.
The Warwickshire Bears player, whose side return to action against Bangladesh tomorrow, told ecb.co.uk:“We are coping pretty well. We are in a good position, level on points with Sri Lanka and India at the moment.
“Our crunch games are now coming up against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Australia to determine who gets into the semi-final places, which is our target for the tournament.
“Knowing Sri Lanka have beaten Australia, it gives us a bit more edge to go on and make sure we secure that third place for a semi-final.”
Sugg has been a shining light for England so far in South Africa.
The 25-year-old, opening the innings with skipper Matt Dean, has struck one century en route to 218 runs in three matches and also taken three wickets.
As well as performing with bat and ball, Sugg has also produced a run out and deputised behind the stumps following an injury to first-choice gloveman Dan Field.
He said: “Personally, it is going pretty well. With the bat, it’s getting up there. The average is slowly coming down, but there are three games to go in the tournament and hopefully we can push that on and get more hundreds.
“I’m feeling pretty decent with the ball. It was the best I bowled in the last couple of matches in the Pakistan game, and it is good to finally get a catch as well.”
Despite losing by 207 runs to Pakistan yesterday, Sugg believes England can take heart from their performance.
The world champions may have racked up 446 in 40 overs but England snared eight wickets, a feat they have not achieved against Pakistan since 1996.
“Overall, it was a great performance with the ball,” Sugg added. “Not many teams in world blind cricket can say they have had Pakistan eight down.
“To take that many wickets against a team like that was incredible, sticking together in the field as well.
“Going out there with the bat we were unsuccessful, but we kept them out there and conceded less wickets than Pakistan did.
“I don’t think another team in world blind cricket can say they have done that over the last 10, 15 years.”