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Ex-players stunned by ‘shambolic’ England

“If England can’t beat a country that has 6,000 cricketers and seven grass pitches...,” Atherton said on Sky Sports television.

He did not finish the sentence but then again he did not need to after what was England’s most humiliating defeat in any form of one-day cricket.

After being 102 without loss, a succession of England batsmen threw their wickets away on Friday following a century stand between Ravi Bopara (46) and Luke Wright (71).

And while the hosts could not manage a single six, the Dutch - a side mainly made up of part-timers - slammed four.

Man-of-thee-match Tom de Grooth led the way with 49 off 30 balls including a six and six fours as the non-Test playing Associate side reached their target of 163 off the last ball of the innings.

De Grooth works as a cricket coach in the Netherlands and, after this match, several ex-England players made it clear it was the home side who could do with a few lessons.

“It was a shambolic performance in the end - it shaded on embarrassing at times,” former England opener Nick Knight said. “We should never have lost a game like that.”

England, who were without the injured Kevin Pietersen, must now beat Pakistan at The Oval on Sunday to have a chance of qualifying for the second stage Super Eights and Knight said all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas had to be given a chance after being left out at Lord’s.

“Who knows what would have happened if we’d had two overs from Mascarenhas at the end maybe? It might have changed the innings.

“I’m dumbfounded why Mascarenhas doesn’t get in that side.

Nasser Hussain, another former England captain who, like Atherton and Knight is a member of the Sky Sports commentary team, said: “Holland looked very nervous for the first 10 overs, like the occasion got to them.

“But when they started to believe England started thinking ‘we might be one or two players short here’.

“I’m not sure about the England tactics, or the balance of the side.

“There was no Mascarenhas, no Graham Napier. A lot of nudgers and nurdlers but no big hitters.”

The newspapers also laid into England.

The Daily Express branded it “humiliation”, comparing England’s “most embarrassing defeat” in limited overs cricket to “a rocking horse winning the Grand National”.

“All the hope and expectation for a memorable summer was trashed by the men in orange, who could never have dreamed of coming to the headquarters of cricket and beating the hosts of the World Twenty20.”

“Clogs 1 Clots 0”, said The Sun.

“Stuart Broad was made to look a total lemon by the orange men of Holland,” it said, rueing his “over from hell”.

Even the opening ceremony was an embarrassment, newspapers added.