No light at end of Ashes tunnel

Australia's annihilation at Lord's was slammed by the country's cricket writers on Monday, and its chances of winning a solitary Test on its tour of England all but written off.

With eight more Ashes Tests looming over the next six months, three more in England and five back Down Under, the influential Malcolm Conn was again driven to ponder whether this was the worst Australian team to ever travel to England.

"On the back of a depressing 347-run, four-day defeat in the second Test at Lord's, this side may well lose all five. It is already 2-0 down," Conn wrote in his column in News Ltd newspapers.

"Heaven knows what the tally could be by the time the last Test of the return series is over in Sydney five and a half months from now."

Gideon Haigh described the Lord's debacle, underpinned by the repeated failures of Australia's top batting order, as a "shabby and public humbling" in his column in The Australian newspaper.

"Australia can play better than they showed here. If their batsmen could give their bowlers more than three hours off in three days, they just might," Haigh wrote.

"The trouble for Australia is that England can also play better."

Reuters

(China Daily 07/23/2013 page23)