UK press rips into England team after Champions Trophy semi-final defeat to Pakistan

The England cricket team have been slammed by the UK media following their semi-final exit from the ICC Champions Trophy.

The hosts suffered a shock eight-wicket defeat to an inspired Pakistan side in Cardiff as the in-form Three Lions team missed out on an opportunity to reach the final and potentially win their first One Day International (ODI) tournament.

The performance was a far cry from the recent showings of the England side who were the only team in the tournament with a 100% record until the defeat.

With expectations high before the Champions Trophy along with the fact that England will also be hosting the 2019 World Cup, the loss comes as a big blow to the team.

"What the heck happened there?" John Etheridge wrote in The Sun. "England departed the Champions Trophy in a wave of misery, humiliation and unanswered questions. They didn't just lose 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% 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 placed 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."

With Pakistan having already played on the pitch at the Sophia Gardens, it proved to be a big advantage for them, according to The Mirror's Dean Wilson.

"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."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan also lamented the performance of the team, claiming that the loss was more painful than when Bangladesh knocked them out of the 2015 World Cup.

"This was the worst possible time for England to revert to their bad old ways," Vaughan wrote in his Telegraph column. "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."

"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."