England must 'go harder' at 'boring' Australia

Head coach Jon Lewis has urged England to "go harder" at Australia following their defeat in the one-off Ashes Test.

The hosts now need nine points from a possible 12 in the six white-ball games, with two points for a win, to regain the Ashes.

"We've got the talent and skill to really attack Australia," Lewis told Sky Sports.

"That's probably what this game has shown us the most, that we're not far away.

"I was speaking to a couple of the girls this morning and I asked them 'what have you learnt this week?'

"And both said 'that we can beat these guys'.

"Going into the rest of the series, I would encourage our players to go harder than what they've gone already, especially with the bat.

"That's an area we can really exploit as a team going into the white-ball series.

"I'll be going back into the dressing room and encouraging the players to put their foot down even more and go hard at the Australian bowlers."

'We went toe-to-toe for a long time'

While Australia's victory was ultimately a comfortable one, England had opportunities to seize the upper hand throughout the game but failed to capitalise.

"When they were 240-6 in the first innings and managed to get to 475, that was a really big part of the game," Lewis added.

"We were looking to bowl first because we felt that was the best way for us to take 20 wickets.

"If we'd just done a little bit better from 240-6, that would've been a big moment in the game. But credit to Annabel Sutherland [who scored 137 not out].

"Then we were 390-4 in our first innings and I was hoping we'd go 100 runs past them. So to end up 10 short… We lost a clump of wickets in the middle.

"They were the two moments in the first innings that could've made a big difference and taken a lead into the second innings."

Captain Heather Knight told BBC Test Match Special: "A couple of evening sessions on day three and four cost us.

"Should we have won it? I don't know. We made it tough for ourselves last night.

"Australia batted well [in the evening session on day three] and took their opportunities to score but we could have bowled better.

"We perhaps tried to take too many wickets but we came back and kept it simple. That happens in Test cricket, you can have a lull, but the way we came back was unbelievable.

"We went toe-to-toe with them for a long time."

'We played boring cricket' - McGrath

All-rounder Tahlia McGrath played a pivotal role for Alyssa Healy's Australia side, scoring a first-innings half-century, taking four wickets across the match and expertly containing England in the chase.

"We just played boring cricket but the whole time we were nervous," she told TMS.

"Every time there was drinks, we were panicking but we did the simple things well."

Despite that "boring" approach, Australia only scored fractionally slower than England.

The visitors went at 3.26-runs-an-over in their second innings - the lowest in the match - but scored at 3.80 in the first, compared to England's 3.81-an-over first time around and 3.63 in the second innings.

"We were cautious coming into this series. England are playing really well," McGrath added.

"Playing in away conditions we knew it would be tough. There's still six games to go and we'll celebrate today and then prepare again."

'Filer is super exciting'

One of the major positives for England was the performance of fast bowler Lauren Filer on debut.

The 22-year-old took four wickets in the match and dismissed Australia legend Ellyse Perry in both innings as her pace consistently caused problems for the tourists' top-order.

"Really pleasing," Knight said. "We picked her because we felt she would have really have an impact and my favourite spell of the Test was hers before lunch yesterday [in which she bowled both Perry and McGrath]. It really got us back in the game.

"Pace does funny things and it was really exciting to watch."

Meanwhile, Lewis admitted there were doubts over Filer's selection due to her lack of experience in red-ball cricket.

"She's 22 and she can bowl quickly," he said. "She's super exciting. For us to pick her, I felt was a brave choice.

"There was no evidence to back up what we'd seen from her in a few spells in some practice games. We thought 'that's exciting, lets see what happens'."

Source Link