ENGLAND’s players were in “absolute pieces” in the dressing room after their agonising two-wicket defeat by Australia, says captain Ben Stokes.

The tourists pulled off an unlikely victory on a dramatic final day of the first Test at Edgbaston.

England were strong favourites at one stage but Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon combined for a stunning ninth-wicket stand of 55 to take Australia home.
“Losing sucks,” Stokes said. “We always want to win.”

He added: “We are absolutely devastated that we have lost.

“The lads are up there in absolute pieces, especially Robbo and Broady [bowlers Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad] who put in an unbelievable shift there.
“But if that’s not attracting people to the game we love then I don’t know what will.

“There are still four games left. Keep following us and we will keep trying to do what we do.”

‘I’m not going to change’
It is a style of play which has carried them to 11 wins from their previous 13 Tests.

They were the aggressive team throughout in Birmingham: they made a surprise declaration late on day one and scored at more than four and a half runs per over, but that led to them losing wickets at regular intervals in their second innings.

Stokes, however, said England would not change their approach in the remainder of the five-match series.

“I am not going to change the way I have gone about my cricket because it is the Ashes,” Stokes, 32, said.

When England declared on day one, Joe Root was unbeaten on 118. The declaration gave them four overs at Australia late in the day but David Warner and Usman Khawaja survived unscathed.
“I thought that was a time to pounce,” Stokes said.

“Who knows, we could have got an extra 40 runs or lost two wickets in two balls. I am not a captain who gets by on ‘what ifs’.

“We were in control of most of the game and managed to produce a result. Obviously we wanted to be on top. We are devastated but that’s sport. It is great and an emotional rollercoaster.”

‘Number one’ – Victory Cummins’ greatest Test win
Australia opener Usman Khawaja, who was named player of the match for his first-innings century and crucial 65 in the second, said he “couldn’t really watch” the finale with his team-mates.
“There was too much nervous energy out the front so I watched it in the changing room with delayed vision,” Khawaja said.”But I could hear everything that was going on. Marnus [Labuschagne] came in and said, ‘you cannot move!’ So I had to stay there. Old habits die hard.”

Captain Cummins described the win as the best of his Test career. He also said he was happy with his side’s tactics which were often more defensive, such as having boundary fielders in the first over of the first day.

“Win or lose we are pretty comfortable with how we go about it,” he said.

“We’ve been really good for the last 20 Test matches, two years. Winning is nice. But we are at our best when we play at our own pace and tempo.

“The wicket probably slowed down that tempo, but we saw the way Uzzy managed his way through an innings and it was pretty special.

“We’re a stable team. We know what we need to do to be at our best and we’ll keep doing it.” (BBC Sport)