Pat Cummins' savage reaction to England drama sends cricket fans wild

Aussie captain Pat Cummins couldn't help but share a laugh at England's World Cup downfall after the reigning champions have all but been eliminated from the tournament. Australia got off to a woeful start in the World Cup having lost their opening two games, but Cummins' men have turned their form around to win three straight and sit fourth on the table.

While Australia have bounced back from an early wobble, England are currently facing one of their worst ever World Cup campaigns having lost four of their five matches. Having won the World Cup at home four years ago, England are all but set to miss out on the knockout stages with games against India and Australia still to come.

POOR: England red-faced as Sri Lanka incident reignites 'spirit of cricket' furore

OH NO: Cricket great blasts England fans amid 'disgraceful' World Cup backlash

England great's such as Nasser Hussain have called out England for the abysmal tournament. And one player who does not appear to be upset about England's downfall is rival captain Cummins.

Cummins captained Australia to a series draw during the Ashes in one of the most intense and bitter series in recent years. The Jonny Bairstow incident caused uproar between players and fans with England bowler Stuart Broad most recently revealing he labelled Cummins a 'disgrace' after the incident.

The Aussie captain is claimed to have quipped back Broad was no 'Spirit of Cricket' bastion amid the tension. And tension between the players doesn't appear to have dissipated with Cummins revelling in England's white-ball downfall.

In Cummins' pre-match press conference he was asked: “You mentioned close friends in other teams. I imagine you would have been heartbroken to see England suffer a defeat last night. What was your reaction to that given you have got them in a couple of games time?”

Cummins couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he replied: "Yeah, it was sad to see. I don't have much." His response certainly caught the attention of the cricket world as fans lost it over his reply.

Stuart Broad reveals ugly Ashes run-in with Pat Cummins

Broad spoke about the tension out in the middle of the field after the Bairstow incident erupted during the Ashes with the bowler admitting he took a dig at the Aussie captain at the time.

“As I’m walking out to bat at Lord’s and there’s boos going at the Aussies, the captain Pat Cummins is coming on to bowl so he’s walking towards me at the end of his mark,” Broad said on the Up Front podcast. “And I just looked at him and said, ‘You’re an absolute disgrace’.

“He said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re hardly an upkeep of the spirit of cricket’.” Cummins' remark was no doubt in reference to an infamous incident involving Broad in the 2013 Ashes series when the paceman refused to walk after clearly edging the ball and being caught behind. “So that upset me a bit,” Broad said about the comeback from Cummins.

The 604-wicket Test legend was then seen exaggerating the action of grounding his bat in his crease. Broad admitted tensions were high during the Ashes series and the atmosphere got to him out in the centre.

“Then the next 10 minutes became me being very facetious and shouting in every time, which I had huge regrets about that night,” he added. “I was hugely embarrassed about it but I had no real control over what I was doing.”

Former Aussie captain Tim Paine hit out at the furore this week after comments from Bairstow were released from an upcoming book on the drama. Paine raised Bairstow's 2014 incident he was involved in, which saw the Englishman remove a batter in controversial circumstances and then defend his dismissal.

The footage emerged at the time of the Ashes and Paine has pointed out that Bairstow claimed it was 'fair game' to take the wicket if it was within the rules.

“It’s been going through social media at the moment, the time Samit Patel was batting, ball went down the legside, Jonny Bairstow was keeping up to the stumps, he wasn’t trying to gain an advantage, he’d started in his crease, he wasn’t leaving, he simply lifted his foot up to balance himself again and mark centre, like Jonny did and Jonny whipped off the bails," Paine said on SEN Radio.

“Social media is brilliant isn’t it — nothing gets lost anymore. Samit Patel wasn’t trying to gain an advantage, and in your words Jonny, that’s fair game. It’s within the rules, it was out. Get over it and move on, we’ve spoken about it so much. You can’t have your cake and eat it. You’ve done it yourself in the past, when it happens to you, you’ve got to cop it on the chin.”

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