‘Dream is now over’: Ben Stokes’ first reaction after Ashes defeat in just 11 days

Australia won the Adelaide Test by 82 runs

After losing the Adelaide Test by 82 runs to Australia, England skipper Ben Stokes said that the dream of winning the first-ever Ashes after the 2010-11 season is finally over and felt ‘incredibly disappointed’ at the loss. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Stokes said it was ‘hurting everyone, and they are all emotional about it’.

Ben Stokes reacts to Ashes loss after Adelaide Test

”The dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing. Everyone’s hurting and quite emotional about it.

We’ve got two more games to go, and that is where the focus needs to switch to now. We came here with a goal in mind, and we have not been able to achieve that. It hurts, and it sucks, but we are not going to stop.

(Difference between the two teams) Just the constant execution, Australia have been able to execute things on a much more consistent basis than us with the ball, with the bat, and in the field. This game of cricket is based on how you bat, how you bowl, and how you field, and they have been able to outdo us on a much higher level. We have shown it in passages across these first three games, and again this week, we did incredibly well to take it to where we did in this fourth innings. I thought we were on for another heist this morning when Jamie and Will were playing so well, but we cannot do what we came here to do,” Stokes said.

”We were confident we had a very good chance of chasing it down because we knew how good the wicket was. There were always going to be challenges that were presented to us, and we dealt with them pretty well in passages. Losing those three wickets at the back end of the day yesterday set us back a bit. All the stuff from last week, around the stuff that I wanted to see a bit more of from this team, I can definitely say I have seen that this week. Some of the guys lower down the order stuck in and showed that courage, fight, and responsibility that I was asking for,” he added.

”But we have got two more games. We’ve got so much to play for, we are not going to fall over and just let this series play out. We are going to leave absolutely everything out there in the field. We have got people coming over here to come and watch these last two games, we have got so much more to play for. We are going to give absolutely everything for these last two games,” he further said.

Coming back to the Adelaide Test, Australia won the Toss and chose to bat first. In the first innings, the Baggy Greens scored 371 runs, courtesy of Alex Carey’s 106-run knock. In reply, England were bundled out for 286.

In the second innings, Australia scored 349 runs on board with the help of a century from Travis Head this time, setting a target of 435 runs for England. In the end, England lost the match by 82 runs and are trailing in the 5-match series by 3-0.