Melbourne, Dec 27 (UNI) Steve Smith showered praise on England following their four-wicket win over Australia in the fourth Ashes Test here on Saturday.
Conceding that the tourists snatched the game away from the hosts, Smith told reporters afterwards, “I thought England came out today and played some really good cricket. They got the ball in the right areas and dismissed us.”
“And then I thought the way they started with the bat was good. Obviously, they were really aggressive, and tried to break the back of a reasonably small chase on a tricky wicket,” he said.
“They got off to a bit of a flier. And a couple of their heavy blows sort of softened our seam quite a bit,” Smith said.
“Probably didn’t offer as much as it had for the rest of the game after that. So credit to them,” he said.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), England managed to dismiss Australia twice in two days, folding the hosts for 152 and 132 in the two innings.
Having been set a target of 175 on Day 2, the visitors managed to chase down the total in 32.2 overs, with four wickets to spare.
Smith believes that it was England’s aggressive batting strategy that aided them to turn things around after three successive losses in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship series.
“The guy with the most success on that wicket was probably Harry Brook. Running down the wicket, playing some rogue shots, and trying to get the bowlers off their lengths,” he said.
Brook was the leading run-getter for England in the first innings – notching a quickfire 41 off 34 deliveries. The England batting sensation was also unbeaten in the middle as they wrapped up a famous win.
Analysing if his side could’ve borrowed a page out of the opposition’s book, Smith said, “Whether we could have been a bit more proactive and played a few more of those (attacking shots), that’s something we’ll talk about but in the end, it’s also a tricky one to do that.”
“You want to try and dig in for your team, you want to extend a couple of those partnerships and maybe the ball would have got a bit softer and played a little easier. We never really got to that point in the game,” he said.
The result ended Australia’s unbeaten streak against England at home since 2011, which included 18 Test matches.
It was also a first loss for the two-time finalists in the ongoing WTC cycle. Australia had arrived into the Boxing Day Test on the back of six straight wins from as many appearances in the 2025/27 cycle.
“We would love to win every game and keep every streak going but like I said, England played really well today,” Smith said.
“We probably controlled the first half of the game yesterday and then they came back into the game today and took the game away from us,” he said.
“Particularly the way (Zak) Crawley and (Ben) Duckett started, they got them off to a flier and softened the ball, which made a big difference,” Smith added.
The two teams will go at it one final time this Ashes starting January 4 in Sydney.
