T20 World Cup 2022: "They are tears of blood" - Harbhajan Singh on England's loss to Ireland

Harbhajan Singh feels the England players might be shedding tears of blood after their T20 World Cup 2022 loss to Ireland.

Ireland set Jos Buttler & Co. a 158-run target in a Group 1 Super 12 game in Melbourne on Wednesday, October 26. They then restricted England to 105/5 after 14.3 overs when the match was called off due to rain to emerge victorious by five runs via the DLS method.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Harbhajan was asked if the England players' eyes would be moist after the defeat. He responded:

"They are tears of blood, they are not tears of water because this will hurt a lot. You have lost two points and you cannot say you lost because of the rain. You played bad cricket."

Harbhajan added that England only have themselves to blame for the loss. The former India spinner explained:

"You bowled poorly and you batted poorly. You knew that there was weather around today, you said that at the toss as well that the weather is bad and you wanted to chase but when it came to the chase, it was extremely poor batting."

England had a dismal start with the ball as Ireland reached a score of 92/1 after 10 overs. Although they came back brilliantly to bowl out Ireland for 157, they failed to force the pace with the bat and lost wickets at regular intervals to fall behind the eight ball.

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"England's mental balance might not remain fine" - Harbhajan Singh

England lost their first three wickets for just 29 runs.

Harbhajan was also asked about England being massive favorites on paper heading into the game. He replied:

"You said England were looking strong on paper but that paper boat got washed away in the rain. I feel England's mental balance might not remain fine because of the sort of result as it is a massive upset."

The cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that England were outplayed by Andy Balbirnie and Co. He stated:

"I felt it would be an easy game for England. But they bowled poorly and then they kept themselves way behind. Ireland's bowling at the start was praiseworthy. They swung the ball and they showed them the mirror, that cricket is not played with the names but with the deeds."

Balbirnie top-scored for Ireland with a 47-ball 62 and strung together an 82-run partnership for the second wicket with Lorcan Tucker (34 off 27). Joshua Little then dismissed Buttler and Alex Hales in his first spell to set England back and they never recovered from there.