Ben Stokes declared himself “devastated” and proud after England lost the first Ashes Test by two wickets at the end of a thrilling final day of wildly careering fortunes that captivated a near sell-out Edgbaston crowd.
“We are not a results-driven team, but we are absolutely devastated,” Stokes said. “The lads are in pieces up there. But if that’s not attracting people to the game we love then I don’t know what will. In terms of what we put into this week, taking the game on from ball one, it would have been easy to play it a bit safer but we didn’t do that, not one individual. That’s something I’ve very proud of.”
Though England were within sight of victory before Pat Cummins, the Australia captain, and Nathan Lyon put together an unbeaten partnership of 55 to change the course of the game, Stokes insisted that defeat was “not a psychological blow at all”.
“If you look at the way we’ve played over the last five days, compared with other recent Ashes series, it shows we’re able to stand up to Australia in the way we want to play,” he said. “There were so many questions coming into the series around whether we would be able to implement this style of play against that team, not just with the bat but with the ball against some unbelievable batsmen. I think we’ve proved that we can.
“Losing sucks. Any game you play in sport, you always want to be the winner. But not putting the result at the top of everything that we think about actually really helps us play free-spirited cricket. When I think what it’s done for the series and the game, it’s hard to be too disappointed.”
Stokes described himself as “flying on caffeine” during a marathon final session to which he contributed seven overs and the wicket of Usman Khawaja, an apparently key moment which he barely celebrated. “I had to keep myself pretty level,” he said. “All the lads were saying: ‘Are you all right?’ I just found myself in a moment within the game where I knew it wasn’t done.”
The England captain was involved in another potentially match-changing moment when he had a chance to dismiss Nathan Lyon with Australia still 36 runs from their target, but he dropped a difficult catch – a moment that reminded him of Lyon’s fumbled run‑out chance when England won a thriller at Headingley four years ago.
“If I’d taken that catch we could have got Josh Hazlewood out first ball, or they could still have knocked the runs off, you never know,” he said. “You think back to Headingley, with Gaz [Lyon] dropping the ball. I drop that catch and he’s still out there at the end. It’s mad how things go round.”
Cummins, echoing the words of Khawaja – who was named man of the match – at the end of the game, declared it “the No 1 Test I’ve ever played in”. It was also Australia’s highest successful run chase in England since Don Bradman powered them to a then-record 404 at Headingley in 1948.
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“I think it’s huge in [giving us] that belief to be able to win from anywhere, having that belief that anyone’s a match-winner,” Cummins said. “When you’re in the back yard playing as a kid, these are the moments you wish to be in – going out there and doing it in the middle of an Ashes series.”
Much has been made of the teams’ contrasting approach to the game, but Cummins said the game was all the better for them. “Both teams spoke about playing their own styles before the game and it is just one of the beauties of this series, that we have contrasting styles. We both played to our strengths and you don’t know what style is necessarily better – but it makes for good entertainment.”
The former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes England will be left questioning their “Bazball” approach after defeat. “The interesting thing coming out of it for me is going to be which team has got the most questions to answer, and I think England do. By no means am I saying England’s methods are wrong. I have loved watching them play. This is a long game, and Australia’s method has stood up and worked.”