The reaction from UK scribes after England suffered its latest T20 World Cup humiliation has been predictably savage with the nation now bracing for a virtual elimination match against Australia on Friday.
England was dealt a shock loss to Ireland on Thursday after a woeful bowling display and a poor start with the bat left it powerless to avoid a five-run loss on DLS when the rain began.
Needless to say, it was a match that England — one of the pre-tournament favourites — was the overwhelming favourite to win.
But in losing one of the two matches considered to be bankers — the other being against Afghanistan — England sits in a precarious position in Group 1 alongside Australia.
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Beating its bitter rivals at the MCG on Friday will make many problems go away for England but, for now, there is a sense of bewilderment over how the team blew it against Ireland.
The Daily Mail’s Paul Newman described England as “mystifyingly poor”, writing that it would have been an “injustice” had it produced a comeback win.
“Everything was in their favour when Buttler won the toss and asked Ireland to bat against an attack that got everything right against Afghanistan in Perth on Saturday. Only this time they got pretty much everything wrong,” Newman wrote.
“We cannot blame it on complacency because England resisted the temptation to rest Mark Wood and Chris Woakes and chose an unchanged team.
“But where they were brilliant in the field in Perth they were lacklustre here. It was as if they couldn’t raise themselves at a near empty MCG against underdogs in the Irish.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said that there were “no excuses at all” for the loss, adding that Ireland was “far superior” with ball in hand.
“England were pretty pathetic for around 15 overs and got it right towards the back end but the lengths and lines were too inconsistent,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz live.
“I think England allowed Ireland to play easy shots because the bowling was so poor.
“They should’ve been better, they should’ve been able to switch on sooner. And they just lapsed for that split second and, at this level, it’s very difficult to get back into a competitive mode.”
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The Telegraph’s Scyld Berry was also critical of England’s bowling that was consistently too short in seamer-friendly conditions.
Berry wrote that England bowled “terribly” in the conditions, calling their decision to engage in short-pitched bowling as “outrageous”.
“A fresh, grassy pitch and overhead cloud did not suggest but actively dictated that England should bowl line and length – instead of being suckered by Paul Stirling and Lorcan Tucker into a bouncer war which saw Ireland shape the match by hitting 59 runs from the six-over powerplay and 92 for one from ten overs,” Berry wrote for The Telegraph.
He added: “Serious questions have to be asked: why were England blown off course so quickly by Ireland’s top three batsmen? Can England win this tournament without Reece Topley, who has gone home with an ankle injury, and who has a dependable temperament under fire and could have been expected to pitch the ball up?
“England batted poorly too, again, of course … but the truth was that Ireland’s seamers maximised conditions … whereas England’s did not.”
Meanwhile, writing for Wisden, Cameron Ponsonby said that England’s batting should not escape criticism with the top-order failing to fire in the knowledge that rain was on the way.
“(Jos) Buttler was gone in the first over, Alex Hales the third and Ben Stokes the sixth. An episode of The Crown gone wrong, with each and every member of English royalty dying tamely one after the other,” he wrote.
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“At no point were England ahead in this game. And the biggest concern within that statement is that everything was in England’s favour across the course of the match.”
Of course, this is not an unfamiliar situation for England.
England has lost to the Netherlands twice at the T20 World Cup (2009 and 2014) and was also beaten by Ireland at the 2011 ODI World Cup.
It means that, like Australia, England is already in danger of not making it to the semi finals.
Australia was crushed by New Zealand in its opening fixture before beating Sri Lanka on Tuesday night.
Now with one loss each, neither England or Australia can afford to lose again on Friday night (7pm AEDT).
Given the blows both teams have suffered to their net run rates, two losses will make it highly unlikely either side can make the semi final.
