Collective failure responsible for Lord's defeat: Aussie media

An inspired England under leadership of Andrew Strauss recorded their first Test win against Australia at Lord's in 75 years yesterday, and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Australia was completely outplayed by the hosts at Lord's.
"The bold rearguard action of Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin should not be allowed to mask the collectively poor performance of Australia at Lord's. There had been some dreadful cricket leading up to this imposing stand which had seen Australia completely outplayed," observed the newspaper.
"With rare and obvious exceptions they have batted, bowled, fielded and wicket-kept so badly that the domination of the first Test in Cardiff appears more like last century than last week," the Daily Telegraph report added.
Couple of controversial decisions notwithstanding, the daily came down heavily on the national selectors for failing to pick up a quality batting line-up for the series.
"No matter how bad the umpiring was, and it was terrible, it is no excuse for the overall shoddy performance, which saw Australia trailing by 210 runs on the first innings.

"The four-man panel of chairman Andrew Hilditch, David Boon, Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox contains three opening batsmen but they failed to choose a spare opener in the 16-man squad, or a spare batsman of any sort," the newspaper rued.
Another daily 'Sydney Morning Herald' took a sarcastic view of the visitors performance with reputed cricket writer Peter Roebuck summing up the mood by terming Ricky Ponting's men "immovable objects".
"On the fourth evening the Australians looked like immovable objects. Now Flintoff an unstoppable force... by now the improbable had become impossible. Flintoff will play in the rest of the series and on this evidence means to go out with a bang," Roebuck wrote in his column.
"Australia had lost the winning habit. Not once on this Ashes and Twenty20 trip has Ricky Ponting's beleaguered party been able to sip from the cup of victory, among the sweetest libations of them all," he added.

On the contrary, 'The Age' newspaper praised England for their inspired show.
"It was a piece of cricket that summed up the ideal of Ashes competition: one competitor giving his best, bringing out the best in the other, a split-second replete with skill, courage, daring and possibility, all fairly played.
"England was unconscionable in the way it wrapped up Flintoff in cotton wool in the pavilion between bowling spells. England observed few niceties. When Mike Hussey was given out erroneously, the England players leapt into one another's arms without a backward glance at the umpire," the paper observed.