FIRST BLOOD
England lose nailbiting first Ashes Test by just two wickets after tense final day as Stokes’ bold gamble backfires
ULTIMATELY, it was glorious defeat for the most thrilling losers in sport.
After five days of high-tempo, high-tension, high-wire cricket, England crash-landed.
12
12
12
12
12
Those of us who were here at this ground in 2005, to watch the greatest match of the greatest Ashes series of all, never thought we would suffer such unbearable stress again.
But here, we were, 18 years older, our tickers less healthy, going through the same agonies.
Back then, England won by two runs and went on to seize the urn.
This time, they lost by two wickets but there have been few more magnificent losses.
READ MORE ON THE ASHES
Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum are trying to reinvent the wheel with their fearless, gung-ho approach to Test cricket.
They are aiming to save this wonderful, endangered, format of the game.
Yet this final day was enthralling Test cricket of the old-school - a slow-burning, nerve-shredding climax.
There will be questions levelled at Stokes. Should he have declared on the first day? Should England have tempered their high-risk batting? Might he have taken the new ball sooner this evening?
Most read in Cricket
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS - BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
Should Ollie Robinson have kept his mouth in check when, after delivering an X-rated send-off to Australia’s limpet-like opener Usman Khawaja, he claimed the tourists had three number 11s in their batting line-up?
It didn’t look that way as Nathan Lyon - one of those supposed rabbits - helped his brilliant skipper Pat Cummins over the line last night, after another apparent no-hoper Scott Boland had done a sterling job as nightwatchman.
But there will be no backwards steps from Stokes, McCullum and their team as they head to Lord’s for the Second Test next Wednesday.
If they cannot win these Ashes, they are going to make damned sure we enjoy watching them lose.
Stokes claims his England are ‘not a results-driven team’. It’s an extraordinary statement but such an attitude was likely to have been tested by the fag-paper margin of this defeat.
You can take away the fear of losing but can you take away the pain of losing?
England battled desperately for the seven wickets they needed to defend the 174 runs required on day five.
Stokes bowled on one functioning leg, Moeen Ali was twirling away with a blistered spinning finger and Jimmy Anderson was scrapping against Old Father Time.
12
12
In many ways it was a surprise they even came so close to glory.
There is one thing about England that Stokes and McCullum cannot transform, though, and that’s the weather.
It bucketed, then it drizzled, and a 25,000 sell-out crowd waited until 2.15pm for the start.
It was a tension-packed den of iniquity - the school truants, the workshy with their dodgy sicknotes, the binge drinkers, all scenting the blood of Australians.
The first hour’s play was trench warfare. Stuart Broad was doing the shelling, the Aussies holding their line.
Broad conjured one beauty to get rid of Boland, edged to Jonny Bairstow, who had now taken all four victims in this innings, despite legitimate doubts about his ability with the gloves.
Then came Ali, stinging like a butterfly, then stinging like a bee.
Travis Head struck the off-spinner’s first two deliveries for four.
12
12
But then Moeen found something extra in that injured digit and ripped one which Head edged to Joe Root at slip.
Australia boast the best three batsmen on the planet, according to the world rankings, but Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith had collectively averaged just 16.8 in this match.
Khawaja, though, was still an immovable object, dawdling to 50 from 143 balls.
If England were trying to save Test cricket through Bazball was Khawaja the man determined to kill it with his remorseless grind?
Cameron Green, the jolly Green giant at 6ft 8in, was getting into his groove, lofting Jimmy Anderson over mid-off.
Anderson, approaching his 41st birthday, struggled to make an impact here but people have been trying to pension him off for years and they are always wrong.
At tea, the Aussies were 183-5, needing 98.
England needed a breakthrough and soon Robinson managed it, forcing Green to chop on.
12
12
Throughout the entire match, every time one side has edged in front, they have been pegged back.
As the target dipped below 80, Stokes decided it was time to risk his iffy knee.
The skipper has a golden arm and he finally ended the epic resistance of Khawaja with an innocuous-looking slower ball, which the opener dragged on.
He had faced 518 balls in this match - and it was retro stuff, the antidote to Bazball.
Root, wheeling away with his off-breaks, must have felt like he was facing a firing squad as Alex Carey and Cummins both drilled sharp chances at him, but both were put down.
He also failed with a leg-before referral against Carey before the Aussie keeper leathered another one straight at him - and this time it stuck.
Stokes had refused the new ball at the start of that over, with 54 still needed to win.
By the time he took it, that deficit was halved - and Stokes had dropped Nathan Lyon off Broad - an agonised, strangled cry around the ground.
12
Cummins hammered Robinson for four, Pope almost taking a flying catch and Zak Crawley fumbling on the boundary.
Now just 17 were needed, when Lyon flicked Broad over the top for four, it was down to seven
Lyon hit Pope at short leg and scrambled a single and finally Cummins dabbed Robinson for four, a diving Harry Brook only managing to help it over the rope.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
It was exquisite agony for England. Pain but plenty of pleasure along the way.
Anything could happen in the six weeks.
Topics