Alastair Cook has said England‘s performances in the second innings against Australia at Lord’s which saw the English batsmen get skittled out for a mere 103 was unacceptable. England had to bat out about 150 overs in order to save the Test match after Australia set them a mammoth target of 509, but England’s batsmen managed to last a mere 37 overs when the last wicket fell. The top scorer for England was Stuart Broad with a score of 25 to his name. “It was certainly not a good performance over the last four days. Full credit to Australia. Right from the first morning they got on top of us and never let us back. READ: Mitchell Johnson leads Australia’s roar back in Ashes 2015
For them it was a real icing on the cake to bowl us out for 100, for us it was a kick in the teeth. So the performance was not good enough, not acceptable and not of the standard that the guys can play. “Certainly over the last three or four months, we’ve found ourselves too often 30 for four (or) 40 for three,” said opening batsman Cook, who made 96 in the first innings but was out for 11 on Sunday,” said Cook. ALSO READ: Australian media hails record-breaking Ashes 2015 victory over England at Lord’s
Speaking about the pitch conditions, Cook made his displeasure evident but refused to use that as an excuse for the big defeat. “We want to play on English wickets and that probably wasn’t too English but that’s nowhere near an excuse. We’ve been totally outplayed in four days. It’s down to the side to play the cricket on whatever surface you are given.”