Piers Morgan has been uncharacteristically quiet in the wake of Australia’s 33-run win over England on Sunday, which knocked the defending champions out of the Cricket World Cup.
There were plenty of members of the English press though who did not shy away from the reality of Sunday’s defeat, accepting it as yet another reminder of how far this team has fallen.
Even England skipper Jos Buttler admitted it felt like a “low point” as the team slumped to its
sixth loss in seven games at the tournament.
“To be stood in this position having arrived in India with high hopes is incredibly tough and disappointing,” Buttler said.
“It hurts a lot.”
Australia had been bowled out for 286 but still had enough firepower to dismiss England for 253 as the defending champions remained bottom of the table and still with two games to play.
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Flying Zampa takes stunning catch | 00:39
“We are disappointed. I feel like we are having the same chat after every game at the minute,” added Buttler.
“We haven’t done ourselves justice. Coming into the tournament we fancied ourselves to have a real go and push whoever it was going to be all the way.”
He added: “We’ve let ourselves down. We’ve let down people down at home, who support us through thick and thin and we wear that on our own shoulders.”
There was no “moral victory” for England to claim, as Harry Brook famously suggested ahead of the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Oval earlier this year.
Instead, according to Nick Hoult of The Telegraph UK, all that was left was a sobering reality that England’s reign as kings of white-ball cricket has come to an end.
“There can be no talk of moral victories this time, only acceptance of an era coming to a sad end as Australia knocked England out of the World Cup,” wrote Hoult.
“England suffered the deeply galling experience of being eliminated by their bitter rivals. Not so long ago they would have eaten a target of 287 for breakfast. Now they can barely lift the fork to their mouths.
“It says it all that of their six defeats at the World Cup, this was the one when they competed for the longest but a 33-run win for Australia is comfortable in ODI cricket. It is now five consecutive defeats for England and they have been bowled out in each game. This once aggressive, dominant batting line up is cowed and broken.”
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Former England captain Michael Vaughan, meanwhile, said on BBC Test Match Special that the Poms have “too many players” that were “out of form” in the tournament.
“They’ve lost their mojo – and when that happens you make poor decisions,” Vaughan added.
Captain Buttler was even guilty in that regard, extending his poor run with the bat when he was out for one off leg-spinner Adam Zampa and did not shy away from taking the blame.
“For sure I think my own form has been something that’s probably the most frustrating thing,” said Buttler whose top score at the tournament is the 43 he made in the opening loss to New Zealand.
“Obviously, I’ve had a pivotal position in the batting lineup, so to play as poorly as I have done has had a big effect on the team.”
Lawrence Booth of The Daily Mail wrote that Buttler’s dismissal “summed up” both Sunday’s defeat and the “haplessness of the past month” for England.
“England’s captain has cut an increasingly careworn figure here, unable either to diagnose his team’s travails, nor prevent them,” Booth wrote.
“His latest misadventure left him with a tally of 106 runs at an average of 15 — truly a travesty for a player of his talents.”
England next play the Netherlands on November 8 and Pakistan on November 11 as they look to qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Aussies knock England out in 33 run win | 03:58
The top seven teams from this World Cup will gain entry into the tournament where hosts Pakistan will have automatic qualification.
The reality that England is now in danger of failing to qualify for that tournament says it all.
“England have spent much of the last eight years showing the world how to play white-ball cricket. The sadness from this tournament is that no one in India will miss them when they fly home,” added Booth.
Just as telling, according to Matthew Henry of BBC, was the fact Sunday’s game between Australia and England was supposed to be a marquee game — a clash of two cricket giants.
Instead, the fact the two bitter rivals were coming off a dramatic Ashes series added much-needed intrigue to what otherwise shaped as yet another sad reminder of England’s demise.
“Instead it meant little, with England playing for pride and Australia knowing they could lose and still reach the semi-finals,” wrote Henry.
“It showed how far England have fallen.”
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While Henry also pointed towards Buttler’s struggles and cheap dismissal at the hands of Zampa, he also was quick to stress England’s problems extend far beyond the skipper.
“Buttler cannot take all the blame,” he wrote.
“Since making fifties in the first two matches, Root’s famed consistency has been only of the disappointing sort – Saturday’s score of 13 following efforts of two, three, and nought.
“Last week Ben Stokes was out playing an ugly swipe to Mohammed Shami as he tried to hit his way into form.
“In Ahmedabad he dug in, at one stage having only eight from 30 balls, but the result was still the same.
“Whether they stick or twist, the result for England is the same – defeat. Five in a row now for the first time at a World Cup.”