Newspapers hail England win

LONDON – British’s newspapers hailed the country’s victorious cricket team Tuesday, saying their performance throughout the second Test against Australia bordered on brilliance.

Captain Andrew Strauss was praised for his tactics while Andrew Flintoff was singled out for his dynamite fast bowling that helped England defeat Australia for the first time at Lord’s since 1934.With headlines such as ‘InFREDible,’ ‘Frightening, five-wicket phenomenal Fred’ and ‘All Hail Flintoff the hero,’ newspapers here poured praise on Flintoff who took five wickets for 92 runs in 27 overs.Former bowling great Ian Botham hailed Flintoff’s efforts as ‘one of the great fast bowling displays of our time.’’Flintoff’s effort was almost superhuman – because he produced a match-winning performance on a flat pitch,’ Botham said in the Daily Mirror.’There was nothing in that Lord’s wicket to encourage any pace bowler, but Fred was the only one on either side who was prepared to extract any life out of it by flogging himself to breaking point.’Flintoff announced before the match that he would retire from Test cricket at the end of this series because of injuries, prompting several commentators Tuesday to urge him to drop the plans and forge on.Former England captain Nasser Hussain said Strauss’s skippering skills during the Test, including the timing of England’s declaration on the fourth day, were near perfect.’Captains are rarely able to say that they produced the perfect performance at the helm of their side but Andrew Strauss came pretty damn close to it here at Lord’s,’ he wrote in the Daily Mail.’It was a spotless display of leadership from the England skipper.’Former England coach Duncan Fletcher said Strauss was proving the better captain, as he and Ricky Ponting face mounting pressure to win each match.’Suddenly you look at his (Strauss’s) opposite number and wonder which of the two has been captain for five years non-stop,’ Fletcher wrote in the Guardian newspaper.’As I’ve said before, Ponting was never really under pressure when he had those greats in his bowling attack, because the players captained themselves.’ ‘Now his prickly side is coming out, both in Cardiff and again at Lord’s.’Former England captain Mike Atherton said Australia’s bowlers needed to significantly lift their performances in the third Test if they wanted to retain the Ashes.’Critics may look to Australia’s first innings, when they lost six wickets for 49 runs to concede a huge first-innings lead, in explaining their defeat. In reality, though, the bowling is by far the bigger problem,’ he said in The Times.Atherton said Australia had yet to win a match on this tour – failing even to bowl out county side Sussex ‘in 89 overs second time round’ in the run up to the Ashes series.Australia and England drew the first Test in Cardiff. – Nampa-AFP