Ben Stokes has vowed to “keep coming at Australia” after the tourists drew first blood in a thrilling Ashes series opener at Edgbaston.
Australia chased down 281 on the final day to win with two wickets to spare, Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins sharing a half-century stand to see the tourists home and grab a 1-0 lead heading into next week’s Second Test at Lord’s.
The defeat was only the third England have suffered since Stokes and Brendon McCullum launched the Test side’s revolution last year and the skipper has vowed to stay true to their aggressive approach.
“I am very proud to take it to the end of day five,” Stokes said. “It was a rollercoaster with ups and down and a game we will never forget. We just want to be part of some great moments. Hopefully we can attract people to the Ashes, in England and Australia, for the remaining four games.
"A loss is a loss. We stuck to our guns on how we would operate and carried on from the last series we played. We are going to continue keep coming at Australia and if we end up on the wrong result but they go down to the wire like this I don't mind.
“We are not a results-driven team. We are, of course, absolutely devastated. 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.”
Cummins, who hit the winning runs to finish unbeaten on 44, hailed the victory as the best of his career and admitted that the dramatic finish of Headingley 2019, when his side were on the losing side, had sprung to mind.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t,” he said. “We’ve been on the other side of it. When you’re on the other side it really hurts, it felt like one that got away. it’s a pretty happy dressing room right now. A lot of those guys were there at Headingley. [Today] we clinched one that it felt like was out of our grasp for a long time.
“It felt like from the first session of day one it was 50-50 the whole way, it never felt like it swung one way or another and I reckon that was the same until about 15 or 20 minutes to go.”
