England captain Ben Stokes and senior batter Joe Root have applauded their team for showing “courage” and “bravery” in their drought-breaking victory over Australia, stating how the team responded to what was “thrown at them” in the difficult lead-up to the fourth Test as well.

“Obviously to lose the series is always very disappointing but I think it was really important that we showed a lot of character for the rest of the series,” said Root to Fox Cricket in a sideline interview. “There’s been a lot thrown at this team and the way that we responded throughout these two days has been excellent. Clearly it was a very fast forward Test match with the surface that we were presented with but I think we adapted to it as much as we could and exploited it when we had the opportunities. We showed a bit of bravery today in the way that we approached things with the bat and it’s why we won the Test match.”

“You never expect them to hand it to you. Like I said, I’ve been on the wrong side of the result a lot here so you know what to expect. You know how good Australia are in their own conditions. But the fact that we managed to get across the line today is excellent and hopefully we can improve on this week and next week as well,” he shared again.

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Ben Stokes also echoed those thoughts and opined on how the team stayed focused despite the noise around them before the Test as well.

“After the couple of days building up to this match, there was quite a lot thrown our way,” Stokes said at the post-match presentation. “To be able to come out here and put a performance in like we did there on the back of all of that kind of stuff. Just make sure that we stay focused on the task at hand, which is to come out here and try and beat a very good Australian team. And we’ve managed to do that. So a lot of credit has to go to the players, the staff and all the management to be able to make sure that the lads’ focus was completely and utterly on cricket. Very, very proud captain here of the guys in the dressing room.”

“It’s obviously been a tough tour up until now and we’re obviously over the moon that we managed to get on the right side of a result. It’s been not only a tough tour for us as a team out here, but obviously everything that’s gone before us. So to be stood here now and be part of a team who’s managed to win a game out of Australia over a long period of time is a pretty good feeling,” he shared again.

However, Ben Stokes also said England’s approach in the chase was based on staying positive on a surface that helped the bowlers as well.

“Yeah, well, I think the way that the cricket was played, it was obviously short and sharp,” Stokes said. “It was very, very, very tricky. And we looked to go out there and take the positive approach to everything. And yeah, it was heavily favoured towards the bowlers.”

“I’m lucky enough that I’d be able to get to do both. So the way that we went about today was exactly the right way of trying to chase that down. You can’t let good bowlers run up and just be able to land on the area that’s dangerous constantly. And I thought the way that we combated that was brilliant. And yeah, chasing down 170 in the way that we did, I think was fantastic. It showed bravery. We were courageous in the way that we operated. And it was definitely the way to go about it,” Ben Stokes concluded.