23 hours ago
16
Ben Stokes insists it is important his England players feel the hurt of one of the biggest Ashes humblings in history - but insists he can still return home with the urn in January.
In what was arguably the swiftest erosion of an Ashes advantage ever, England took lunch 99 runs ahead with nine second-innings wickets in hand, only for another huge batting implosion to be followed by a Travis Head-inspired Australia romping into a 1-0 lead.
Describing himself as ‘shellshocked’ by Head obliterating the 205-run target with 123 off 83 balls after tea at the Perth Stadium, Stokes said: ‘Let emotions like this sink in, it has got to hurt.
‘There’s two sides of sport, winning and losing, and the emotions are completely different. The highs of winning - you have to let that go and move onto the next one, just as you do when you have these feelings. You have to feel it all.’
The good thing for England is that they now have 12 days before the second Test - a floodlit affair at the Gabba - to reflect on their shortcomings of a 15th defeat of a Bazball era that has also delivered 25 victories.
‘When we get to Brisbane we need to be back to that mindset we had before this game. We are still very confident in our abilities in achieving a goal,’ Stokes continued.
England captain Ben Stokes admitted he was left shell-shocked by Travis Head's match-winning onslaught
Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne celebrate after seeing Australia over the line
‘We have to not take any baggage from this result into Brisbane, because we need to win that one.
‘All of my focus and all of my energy will be going into getting the group back up.’
After dismissing Australia for 132, England ceded the advantage of the bowlers earning a 40-run lead during a frenzied post-lunch period in which they lost five for 23 to a succession of loose drives.
It took a 50-run stand between Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse to ensure that Australia would have to make the biggest score of the match to earn their series advantage.
‘You can label it how you want when you’ve got the outcome. The batsmen who found success were ones who didn’t let go any scoring opportunities that came their way. You still have to find ways of scoring runs on flat wickets, ways of scoring runs on wickets that offer lots for the bowlers,’ Stokes said.
‘The way 19 wickets fell on day one, we were more proactive with our approach. It would have been nice to have a bigger lead going into the final innings, but we were very confident we could win the game but that wasn’t the case.’
It should be a concern, however, that England were only able to bat for a combined 67.3 overs in the first two-day Ashes Test since 1921.
Stand-in captain Smith revealed the key to their victory was staying calm in the face of the Bazball chaos
It is back to the drawing board for England, who have 12 days to prepare for the second Test in Brisbane
It is far from an isolated occurrence, either. Earlier this winter, the 3-0 defeat to New Zealand was down to the one-day team being dismissed in 35.2, 36 and 40.1 overs.
However, Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith warned of the dangers they possess, saying: ‘They’re a good side, they’ve played good cricket for a long time and we know that the style of play that they have means they’re going to have moments where they come off and get away from us.
‘So, it’s about being calm in those moments and trying to come up with plans to either slow them down or get them out.’
One further boost to Australia for the second of five matches, starting on December 4, is that Pat Cummins is expected to be fit to reclaim the armband from Smith following a hamstring injury.
