PERTH (Reuters) -England captain Ben Stokes declared himself shell-shocked by Travis Head's incredible innings of 123 as Australia, seemingly on the ropes, roared back to crush England by eight wickets inside two days of the opening Ashes test on Saturday.
But, predictably, he declined to criticise his own side's batting approach after a second consecutive collapse triggered by a series of loose, early shots by the team's elite operators.
England were in a strong-looking position with a lead of 105 with one wicket down just after lunch, but lost nine wickets for 99 and needed late runs from bowlers Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse to even make that, setting Australia a target of 205.
Stand-in opener Head then hit the second-fastest century in Ashes history en route to 123 and Marnus Labuschagne was unbeaten on 51 as Australia raced to their target in 28.2 overs.
"Little bit shell-shocked there," Stokes said. "That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. It's quite raw, quite fresh at the moment. But sheesh, that was some knock."
Although Head's performance was incredible, England's post-lunch batting collapse - for the second day running - will be the focus of much of the post-mortem.
ENGLAND'S PREPARATION QUESTIONED
Many observers had questioned England's preparation - just one internal match against the England Lions on a pitch much slower than in Perth - and their top order looked predictably awkward in dealing with pacey, good length balls on Saturday.
Ollie Pope, Joe Root and Harry Brook all fell to expansive drives, the latter two having barely put bat on ball, just as half the team had done on Friday.
Australia's bowling was accurate and disciplined but the ball was not moving wildly and England's total lack of even a hint of patience was repeatedly exposed.
However, Stokes, who at least tried to play some defensive shots before falling for two, was in no mood to criticise.
"It's pretty obvious that the guys who managed to find success out there were the ones who were really brave, who really decided to take the game on because there was a lot happening out there," he said.
"If you’re the guy who's managed to get in, try and give yourself the best chance of going on. But as we saw, anyone who tried to occupy the crease didn't have much success.
"You have to find ways of scoring runs on wickets that offer a lot for the bowlers. The way in which the 19 wickets fell on day one - we were more proactive with our approach and we managed to come away with a 50-run lead.
"It would have been nice to have a bigger lead but we were confident about our ability to keep Australia to under 200. But it wasn't the case."
ENGLAND'S BATTING 'REALLY POOR'
Former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan was not buying it.
"We've been saying we want 'Bazball with brains' but the brains haven't arrived," he told the BBC. "The batting, it's really poor, they're all trying to whack it to the boundary. It's so disappointing.
"I don't see how they can win a big series batting like that."
Asked if he thought some of his batters should have taken fewer risks and "batted for longer" Stokes said: "Well, it's a pretty easy thing to say, but a lot harder to do."
Oddly for Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, they can reflect on large portions of the match when they performed superbly, and the captain said they would look at those positives as they prepared for the second test in Brisbane.
"The way we bowled yesterday was simply phenomenal," he said.
"We felt we were in control of the game when we came out to bowl in the fourth innings, so it's a tough one to take. But we've got four more games to come. Let this sink in, get our heads round it and go from there."
(Reporting by Joel Dubber, writing by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
