England captain Ben Stokes has admitted that his side’s chaotic two-day victory over Australia in the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne was “not the best advertisement” for Test match cricket.
While there was undoubtedly a superficially fun edge to seeing the mayhem unfold at the MCG, this was the second time in the series that a Test has finished inside two days –despite only 25 such occurrences previously in the entirety of Test cricket history heading into the Ashes.
England sealed a dramatic four-wicket win by successfully chasing down 175 on an absolute minefield of a pitch that has come in for heavy criticism for being almost impossible to bat on, as shown by 20 wickets falling on day one and a further 16 in less than an a full day’s play 24 hours later.
And while Stokes was delighted that his side finally ended a 15-year wait for an Ashes Test win in Australia, as well as salvaging some pride from a series where they lost the urn in almost record time, he acknowledged that the conditions will have done nothing to promote the sport.
“It’s a great feeling [to win],” Stokes told Test Match Speical. “It happened very quickly. The game was set up for us to chase down a total. Suddenly, when you have a target, it makes things a lot easier.
“The way that wicket played throughout, it was clear and obvious how we had to take that game on. It was not the best advertisement for Test match wickets but you have to face the conditions that are in front of you.
“I think even [Australia captain] Steve [Smith] knew it was going to do a bit, but that was not the best, was it? Thirty-six wickets in less than two days and nothing over 200. I think you can read into that a lot.
“If that was another condition somewhere else and that happened, you probably would get a pasting. That is what we had to try play our cricket on and, you know, when the pressure was on and the moment mattered, we were able to stand up and deliver something good.
“In that pressure moment, if I’m honest, is what we have not been able to do so far in the series, so I’m obviously very ecstatic about the result that we managed to get here.
“We still have one more [Test] to go, and the focus has not moved away from that. We had two games, and we want to get two results in our way.”
Stokes was correct in assuming that Steve Smith was also not overly impressed with the state of the pitch, as the stand-in Australia captain – thrust into the role with Pat Cummins still managing a back injury and thus rest for this fourth Test with the series already won –admitted it swung the pendulum too much in favour of the bowlers.
“It’s a tricky one,” said Smith. “It was obviously a very quick game! Had we got 50 or 60 more across both innings then we might have been there at the end but credit to England, they came out today, bowled really well this morning and didn’t let us get away.
“Then the way they started with the bat, they were very aggressive, got a few away and probably softened our ball a bit – it didn’t offer as much from that point.
“The pitch did a fair amount for the whole game. Just probably when the ball just softened after a few lusty blows from their top order, it went a little bit less, but without that, it was still going to offer plenty.
“I think [it was in favour of the bowlers] a little bit too much. It was tricky, no-one could really get in. When you see 36 wickets across two days, that’s probably too much. It did more than they probably wanted to. If we drop it down to 8mm [of grass], that might be about right.”
