After enjoying their victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in last week’s T20 World Cup, England got back a taste of their own medicine.
The Three Lions suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Aussies on the same ground.
England lost the third ODI by a massive 221 runs just nine days after winning the T20 World Cup.
The team is now receiving quite some backlash from home.
First to criticize the players was former wicketkeeper-batter Matt Prior. He says,
It was an absolute pumping. There was only one team that turned up all series. It was a little bit inevitable.
Moreover, many of England’s key players were missing on this tour like Liam Livingstone, Mark Wook, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, and Adil Rashid.
Adding further, Prior says,
Some of those dismissals suggest it’s not even half of their minds on the aeroplane, it was all of their minds on the aeroplane home.
Even skipper Jos Buttler also accepted that his team did not play too well in the games.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Buttler said,
We tried our best, we fell a long way short. I thought Australia outplayed us in every department and all credit to them.
Adding further, he said,
There is lots to be proud of. You don’t need a very long memory to remember the scenes (at the MCG) from last week so we got exactly what we wanted coming here. We are very proud of that.
Finally, former England pacer Steve Harmison slammed the English cricket team and said that it was a totally meaningless series.
The euphoria of winning the T20 World Cup has not been diminished in any way by three meaningless games played, from England’s point of view, in a meaningless way.
Additionally, Aussie skipper Pat Cummins was really happy with his team’s performance in all three games.
At the post-match presentation, he said,
It’s been fantastic all three games, everything has really clicked.
Adding further, he said,
The bowlers have wanted to bowl and done the job and the batters have been fantastic. It was good to finish it off here with what I think is the best ODI I’ve been a part of.
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