IT WAS a relieved Ben Stokes bidding good riddance to more than a decade of pain for English cricket in Australia on Saturday (27) as his team rallied from the depths to complete a drought-breaking test win in Melbourne.
Under fire after losing the first three Ashes tests, and amid reports of players treating a mid-tour break in Noosa as a hard-drinking "stag do", there seemed little prospect of England turning things around at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Lacking injured paceman Jofra Archer and with Gus Atkinson suffering a hamstring strain early on day two, England had to dig deep to contain Australia and chase down 175 runs on a treacherous wicket for batters.
In the end, with the Barmy Army singing joyously, Stokes could finally soak up a test win on Australian soil even if the urn was locked away by the hosts after the third test in Adelaide.
"I think it will mean a hell of a lot to everyone," he said of England's first test win Down Under since January 2011.
"Then you've got me and Joe (Root), who have came here a few times and been on the wrong end of the result.
"But I think we will all share that same satisfaction of winning a game out here.
"And adding to it (was) that it was a Boxing Day test match, which is a very, very big sporting event that we're lucky enough to be able to play in.
"So there'll be all different types of emotions associated with this victory."
On their first Ashes tour, Stokes and Root were part of the England squad that were whitewashed 5-0 in 2013/14 by pace dynamo Mitchell Johnson and a vengeful Australian outfit.
Stokes missed the 4-0 defeat on the next 2017/18 tour while defending assault charges he was later cleared of, but returned for the 2021/22 tour as England lost 4-0 again.
Australia were pushing for a whitewash in the current series but the MCG pitch stopped the hosts in their tracks and things belatedly came together for England.
After the bowlers routed Australia for 132 in their second innings early on day two, England's previously misfiring top order smashed Australia's quicks around the ground at six or seven runs an over.
It softened up the ball's seam, reducing its movement off the pitch, and allowed the middle order batters to complete victory late on day two.
England have pulled off some epic chases, including the 371-run target to beat India by five wickets at Headingley in the first test of the home summer series.
But Stokes felt the 175-run effort at the MCG ranked highly among them given the condition of the pitch and all the off-field turmoil that had engulfed the side in the lead-up.
"Chasing down 170 on a wicket like that was never, ever going to be easy," he said.
"So I think when you put everything into consideration with the buildup to this test match, the conditions that we were faced with to chase 170 down -- you could almost say that it felt like 340.
"But I love the way that we went about it, that we just didn't let a very good bowling attack feel like they were able to settle into the areas that they wanted to."
(Reuters)
