Ashes
Eng have momentum - Strauss
2010-12-07 10:40
Adelaide - Skipper Andrew Strauss savoured England's first innings victory in Australia for 24 years on Tuesday and said his confident side now had crucial momentum in the series.
Video: England players do the 'sprinkler'Gallery: England go 1-up England demolished Ricky Ponting's team by an innings and 71 runs in double-quick time on the final morning of the second Adelaide Test to go one up in the series with three matches to play.
"To bowl Australia out for 245 was an outstanding effort on a flat wicket, then we didn’t take our foot off the pedal," Strauss said.
"We never gave them a look in the game and we’re very pleased about what we’ve done, especially on the back of the last couple of days at the Brisbane Test.
"We’ve got some great momentum in the series and we’ve got to keep it going."
Strauss was cautious not to sound triumphant or gloat over his team's conclusive performance with bat and ball.
"We know the game of cricket and we know it’s got a horrible way of biting you if you pat yourself on the back too much," he said.
"We need to enjoy this and savour it because it was a special victory for us, in some ways it exorcised some of the demons from four years ago here (Test loss).
"But it’s back to square one again, we’ve got the three-day game in Melbourne where we’ve got to keep the momentum going, then it’s important that we don’t let Australia back in the series now."
Strauss said the results of a tight-knit England group were becoming evident against a transitional Australian team.
"We’ve seen that come through, we’ve been a very tight unit for the last couple of years now really and we’re seeing guys that are getting used to winning and celebrating each other’s success, and that’s a great thing," he said.
"What I would say is that at the start of the series we said the only way we’ll win the Ashes is through 11 guys performing, we can’t rely on one or two.
"We’ve seen some good performances from a number of different people on this tour so far, a lot of our batters are in good form.
"All the bowlers are bowling well, but we need to make sure we don’t take our foot off the pedal because we know Australia will come back at us hard and if there’s any way back into the series, they will take it."
England have a three-day tour game against Victoria, starting in Melbourne on Friday.