England captain Ben Stokes admitted that he was taken aback after his side’s eight-wicket defeat to Australia in the Perth Test, where Travis Head’s blistering innings in the fourth innings on day two completely blew the visitors away.
Head, who opened the batting for Australia in their second innings, smashed 123 off 83 deliveries to make a mockery of the target of 205 set by England and ease the hosts into a 1-0 lead in the series.
The England skipper was left with nothing but acknowledgement for his opponent, who completely took the game away from his side.
“We’re a little bit shellshocked there. That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. That was some knock. It’s knocked the wind out of us,” Stokes said at the post-match presentation.
“We tried three or four different plans at him. When he was going like a train, those plans could change quite quickly, because those runs were coming down quickly. I’ve seen Travis play a lot of knocks like that, whether it be in Test cricket or white-ball cricket. He’s very hard to stop,” he added.
Stokes also noted that the batters from both sides who proactively attacked the bowlers were the ones who found success on an otherwise lively Perth surface.
“If you look at the way the game eked out, the guys who seemed to have success out there with bat in hand were the guys who were really brave and took the game on. Anyone who tried to stay around there and try and occupy the crease didn’t really seem to have too much success,” he said.
“On wickets like this, you never think you’ve got enough, so if you find yourself in a position where you’re the guy who’s managed to get in, try and give yourself the best chance of going on. There was a lot of assistance there when the bowlers put the ball in the right areas. The guys who were brave enough to knock the bowlers off their lengths seem to find success on that,” he added.
Some Positive For England In Perth Test
The England captain Ben Stokes admitted that the defeat in Perth was difficult to take but felt his team could head to Brisbane with some positives from the game.
“The way in which we bowled yesterday was simply phenomenal. This is a very tough one to get the series going when we felt we were in control of the game, and we were coming out there to bowl in that fourth innings. We’ve got four more games here,” said Stokes.
“We’ll obviously let this sink in. Obviously it hurts extremely, but we got to get our heads round and move on to Brisbane, and then hit the ground running there,” he added.
Stokes-led England will look to bounce back in the second Test in Brisbane, starting from December 4.
