London: An ecstatic British media on Tuesday heaped praise on the England cricket team for completing a 4-0 series whitewash of India, which according to it lacked fighting spirit and now face a long walk back from the “embarassing” defeat.
India suffered its worst series defeat in England since 1959 after slumping to an innings an eight run loss in the fourth and final Test at the Oval yesterday.
And expectedly, the British media were quick to lambast the performance of the Indian team, which came into the series as world’s numero uno Test side.
“India simply weren’t up for the fight. England have embarrassed them. I predicted England would win 2-1 at the start of the series. ‘Pompous’ was probably the kindest adjective directed my way by irate Indian fans. They went quiet very quickly. And that’s because it became apparent very quickly that their beloved India simply weren’t up for the fight,” Steve James wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Former England cricketer and James’ colleague Derek Pringle termed England’s performance in the series as an “emphatic statement of supremacy”.
“England are a fine, ruthless team and hinted that this can be the case in any conditions; India have been a motley collection of disparate individuals, only one of whom, Rahul Dravid, can look back on the series with any satisfaction,” the Guardian said. “New masters show little mercy: England seal whitewash after denying Tendulkar,” ran the Daily Mail’s headline. (PTI)
