Old issues return as muddle-headed England lose to Pakistan

England's Champions League dream fell apart as Pakistan thrashed Eoin Morgan's side by eight wickets in the semi-final at Cardiff.

After recent success based on ferocious batting performances, England were bowled out for just 211, with danger-man Ben Stokes summing up their woes with a pedestrian innings of 34 off 64 balls and not a single boundary.

In reply, Pakistan made short work of the target, knocking off the runs with 13 overs to spare and losing only two wickets.

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Defeat has prompted some soul-searching among England cricket fans and commentators.

"What will eat away at Morgan over the coming days is that his team failed to show their true colours and failed to stay true to the captain's bold message that had underpinned the recovery after the 2015 World Cup," says Michael Atherton in The Times.

"It has been a privilege to watch England in one-day cricket for the past two years but, on a day when it really mattered, they were unable to reproduce anything close to their best form. Morgan promised that they would go down all guns blazing; yesterday they fired blank after blank."

England failed to hit a six during their innings, adds Atherton. It may have been nerves, but mostly "the skill, variety and verve of Pakistan's fast bowlers proved to be too good for England's batsmen, who were confounded by a mixture of reverse-swing, yorkers, bouncers and slower balls".

Barney Ronay of The Guardian says it was a return to the bad old days: "For all the talk of adrenal new eras and white-hot modernity it was the old uncertainty batting first against nagging bowling on a grippy pitch that derailed England's campaign against a Pakistan team who produced a wonderful all‑round performance."

The pitch counted against them, he adds, but England's lack of subtlety was exposed. Their "policy of proscribed aggression - the that's-just-the-way-I-play dictum - looked confusedly single-gear in Cardiff".

England allowed their concerns over the pitch to get to them and "batted themselves into a hole" amid uncertainty about how many runs they needed, says Jonathan Agnew of the BBC.

He adds it means the team are out of a tournament they could have won: "They had all bases covered: powerful batting and a bowling attack full of variety and wicket-takers - a team of match-winners. They will be bitterly disappointed."

However, continues the journalist, there are positives. "They will now set their sights on the 2019 World Cup, where once again they will be the hosts.

"Two years out, they look in good shape to do well in that tournament. Most of this squad will still be around and the England hierarchy will want Morgan to remain in the job, even if Joe Root is about to take over as Test captain."