Ashes: Australia seal comfortable 10-wicket victory in the first Test at the Gabba
AUSTRALIA completed a comfortable victory in the opening Test of the Ashes series, winning by 10 wickets at The Gabba.
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Needing just 56 runs to establish a one-nil lead going to Adelaide and the day-nighter starting on Saturday, David Warner (87no) and Cameron Bancroft (82no) got there with the minimum fuss.
England missed the chance to sow some doubt in the minds of Australia batsmen.
But the damage was done on day four when England were rolled over for 195 to set a relatively simple chase of 170 for the home side.
Australia remain unbeaten at their fortress in Brisbane with Viv Richards’s West Indies side the last visitors to emerge victorious back in 1988. England have not won an Ashes Test here since 1986.
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Now Root’s men face a mountain if they are to win the series with no England team winning the Ashes down under since Len Hutton’s side came back from one nil down at The Gabba to win in 1954.
England’s bowlers toiled unconvincingly throughout the Australian run chase with Chris Woakes, Jake Ball and Moeen Ali all expensive.
Only the two strike bowlers Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad were able to restrict the flow of runs from the bats of the two Australian openers.
Root said: “For three days [in Brisbane] we played some excellent cricket, then unfortunately we got into some good positions and didn't quite capitalise on it.
“So we need to address some of the things we’ve learnt from this game, but for three days the majority of the time we outplayed Australia.”
The weekend's play has been overshadowed by the Jonny Bairstow headbutt furore.
And Bayliss is set to read the riot act to his players.
The England coach was furious at having to explain away Bairstow’s late-night antics in a Perth bar which have blown up in the media down under.
Particularly given that they came in the immediate aftermath of England slumping to a 10 wicket defeat in the first Test at The Gabba.
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But Bayliss insisted that while he does not want to impose a blanket booze ban on the remainder of the tour he will hammer home to the remainder of the squad that it is up to them to take responsibility for their actions on nights out.
“It gives the opposition ammunition to put pressure on [us]," said a rattled Bayliss.
"We are are here to play cricket and we have to find a way to play as well as we can and have no distractions from outside that.
"We can’t put ourselves in these situations however small they are.”
