England crashed out of the ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday to an inspired Pakistan outfit in Cardiff, an upset that has been described as ‘inept and feeble’ by the local press.
The eight-wicket loss featured none of the attacking flair Eoin Morgan’s side had shown since their embarrassing group-stage exit at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Instead, they were humbled by a dry Sophia Gardens wicket and an excellent all-round bowling effort from the unpredictable Pakistan.
With so much hype, promise and expectation around this England side, it comes as no surprise that the UK media have come down hard on Morgan’s men.
Veteran cricket writer John Etheridge labelled the loss as “inexplicable”, and that now there is even more pressure on England to succeed as hosts of the World Cup in 2019.
“What the heck happened there? England departed the Champions Trophy in a wave of misery, humiliation and unanswered questions,” Etheridge wrote in The Sun.
“They didn’t just lost to Pakistan in Cardiff, they produced a performance of quite shocking ineptitude and feebleness.
“After two years of playing aggressive, fearless one-day cricket and entering the semi-finals as the only team with a 100 per cent record, England’s meek and mild performance was almost inexplicable.
“Make no mistake, this is a huge setback to England, head coach Trevor Bayliss and team supremo Andrew Strauss, who have played such an emphasis on one-day cricket.
“The pressure on them to win the home World Cup in 2019 has been cranked up by several notches.”
Mirror cricket correspondent Dean Wilson pointed out England’s failure to adapt to the worn Welsh wicket, which hosted its second match inside three days.
“England’s one-day revolution was brought to its knees in Cardiff as Pakistan revelled in their home from home,” Wilson wrote.
“With Swansea-born Imad Wasim in their ranks, the boyos in green looked as comfortable on a used pitch as if they’d been playing in Lahore, prompting England skipper Eoin Morgan to lament: ‘There was no home advantage.’
“And to think after two years of crash, bang, and walloping cricket, it was a second-hand surface that required some old fashioned accumulation that was their undoing in an eight-wicket hammering.
“England’s failure to adapt meant they were mugged in their own tournament, by a side they marmalised four times out of five last summer and who were lucky to have got as far as they had.
“And just over a year on from a devastating defeat in the final of a World T20, England have crashed out a round earlier and in far less dramatic style. Somehow this loss seems worse. It wasn’t even close.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, writing for The Telegraph, says this loss stings more than England’s 2015 World Cup exit at the hands of Bangladesh.
“This was the worst possible time for England to revert to their bad old ways. I expected them to fly out of the traps and really send a message to Pakistan with the bat after being so brave and fearless against Australia at the weekend,” Vaughan wrote.
“But this time England were circumspect. They were too watchful and this was one of the biggest disappointments we have had from an English team in many years.
“I feel flatter about this than defeat than when they were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup. Then England had everything wrong: strategy, selection and the coach. But here they had every facet covered with ten of the 11 players in form and the side playing a style of cricket that makes them a match for any team in the world, so to play that badly in a semi-final, with everything riding on the game, was terribly disappointing.”
Paul Newman of The Daily Mail made note of Pakistan’s ODI world ranking – eighth – as England’s major global 50-over drought continues.
“What a time for England to produce their worst one- day performance since the debacle of the last World Cup. What a time for Pakistan to conjure up the spirit of Imran Khan’s cornered tigers and upset all possible odds,” wrote Newman.
“This was not just a semi-final beating for England in the Champions Trophy, it was an absolute hammering just when it seemed they were destined to end their long wait for a first global title in the longer limited-overs game.
“And it came against a Pakistan side ranked eighth out of the eight teams in this tournament and seemingly destined for an early exit when they were comprehensively beaten by India in their opening game.”
And former England fast bowler Derek Pringle said it was England’s inability to adapt to the conditions that cost them dearly on the big stage.
“The use of a pitch already played upon in Pakistan’s match against Sri Lanka on Monday raised a few eyebrows, given the importance of the match. But if the bare, dry nature of it favoured Pakistan, who are brought up on such surfaces, Eoin Morgan’s England side should have risen better to the cerebral challenge posed by conditions like these,” wrote Pringle.
“While few would disagree that it has been England who have played the most strident cricket in this tournament, this was not the occasion to show off one’s power or back catalogue.
“Rather it was a moment which demanded subtlety and adaptation – for head to be engaged rather than the heart something Pakistan, perhaps surprisingly given their volatile nature, managed here far better than their opponents.
“Modern batsmen have, in recent years, expanded wonderfully the palette of shots possible as well as the size of totals. But they like certainty, at least in their own minds, about what the pitch and bowlers are likely to do.
“Here, both those things were great unknowns and while batting first should have been advantage on a pitch already worn from Monday’s play, it also fed into that other great source of doubt for today’s batsmen – working out just exactly how many is a good score for the conditions.”