• Debutant feels wicket is good enough to stage comeback
• 'With nine wickets left we can pile on the runs'
Ben Stokes is adamant England can fight their way back into the second Ashes Test after Australia dominated day two at Adelaide.
"It's been a pretty tough two days but it's nice to eventually get off the pitch and concentrate on what we've got to do with the bat," he told Sky Sports 2. "There's a lot of talent in the batting line-up and we know that we've got the skills to do it and try to put a big score on ourselves."
He added: "The pitch hasn't really broken up like we thought it would. It's still a very good batting wicket and hopefully we can capitalise on how good it is. We go in tomorrow with nine wickets left and we can pile them on tomorrow."
England were left toiling in the field as Australia took control, but Stokes had a personal highlight as he dismissed Michael Clarke to claim his first Test wicket. The Australia captain chipped the first delivery of a new spell to midwicket off a leading edge to end an exemplary, near six-hour innings having hit 17 fours from 245 balls.
Stokes, who also thought he had dismissed Brad Haddin only to see his delivery declared a no-ball, said gaining the notable scalp of Clarke was "a very special moment, something that I'll never forget."
He added: "We had a plan as a bowling unit, which was to bowl pretty straight. The pitch wasn't really doing much so we just had to hang in there and pile on as much pressure as we could.
"The wickets did come. They weren't very often but the way we bowled I think we created quite a lot of pressure." Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.
• 'With nine wickets left we can pile on the runs'
Ben Stokes is adamant England can fight their way back into the second Ashes Test after Australia dominated day two at Adelaide.
"It's been a pretty tough two days but it's nice to eventually get off the pitch and concentrate on what we've got to do with the bat," he told Sky Sports 2. "There's a lot of talent in the batting line-up and we know that we've got the skills to do it and try to put a big score on ourselves."
He added: "The pitch hasn't really broken up like we thought it would. It's still a very good batting wicket and hopefully we can capitalise on how good it is. We go in tomorrow with nine wickets left and we can pile them on tomorrow."
England were left toiling in the field as Australia took control, but Stokes had a personal highlight as he dismissed Michael Clarke to claim his first Test wicket. The Australia captain chipped the first delivery of a new spell to midwicket off a leading edge to end an exemplary, near six-hour innings having hit 17 fours from 245 balls.
Stokes, who also thought he had dismissed Brad Haddin only to see his delivery declared a no-ball, said gaining the notable scalp of Clarke was "a very special moment, something that I'll never forget."
He added: "We had a plan as a bowling unit, which was to bowl pretty straight. The pitch wasn't really doing much so we just had to hang in there and pile on as much pressure as we could.
"The wickets did come. They weren't very often but the way we bowled I think we created quite a lot of pressure." Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.