Defeat a bitter pill for England
A restless Steve Smith admitted he had to take a sleeping pill on the night before the final day of the second test but he need not have worried in the end as Australia finished off England ruthlessly to take a 2-0 lead into next week’s third match of the series in Perth.
The Ashes could now be Australia’s again within a fortnight but the Australian captain was relieved to leave Adelaide Oval with the win after enduring a difficult time since his much-debated decision not to enforce the follow-on on the third evening.
Smith had a shocker with the Decision Review System, getting out cheaply in the second innings and dropping a catch as the window opened for England to come back from oblivion and pull off a record-breaking run chase.
Ultimately, his world-class bowling attack, led by an inspired and express Josh Hazlewood, shut down that possibility promptly to complete a 120-run victory but Smith conceded that nerves about the situation Australia found themselves in were playing on his mind on Tuesday night.
‘‘I had to have a sleeping pill last night,’’ Smith said after the match yesterday. ‘‘It has been a tough 24 hours if I’m being honest. It’s all part of being captain of your country. You have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes you’re going to make the wrong decision. It’s all part of the learning experience and hopefully I can learn something from this game.’’
Smith said he could ‘‘breathe more easy’’ after Hazlewood knocked over England captain Joe Root with his 11th ball of the afternoon’s play and from there the visitors folded, adding only 57 more runs as they lost their last six wickets to be all out for 233 before tea.
The result was emphatic but there had been second thoughts about his heavily scrutinised decision to bat again, rather than send England back in under lights with a lead of 215.
‘‘I would say that over the last day or so I have had a few different thoughts and I’ve read a lot of things. But in the end we’ve won the game so it’s all irrelevant,’’ Smith said.
Australia’s sub-par batting on day four in being rolled for 138 had contributed to England being given a glimmer of hope but the way in which Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins dismantled the tourists within a session yesterday indicates it will be hard for Root’s side to recover.
The tension between the two sides continued in Adelaide after a fiery opening to the series in Brisbane and there were several notable on-field confrontations and verbal exchanges.
However, while England had been
‘‘It has been a tough 24 hours if I’m being honest. It’s all part of being captain of your country.’’
Steve Smith
unhappy about Australia’s sledging at the Gabba, there were no complaints in Adelaide where both sets of players gave as good as they got.
Root said his team is still in the contest and can play better.
‘‘It’s disappointing [the result]. I don’t think we did ourselves justice today. But we’re still in the series.’’