Fine margins dictate outcome of Ben Stokes’s decisions in England defeat | Andy Bull

As Australia won the first Ashes Test, England did not act like a team that had just lost a game they probably should have won

Of course it all came down to the declaration didn’t it? Just like the man on the radio phone-in said it would. Ben Stokes’s bold/brainless decision (note to subeditors: I’m on deadline, so please delete as appropriate) to call his batsmen in early in the first innings turned out to be a truly inspired/idiotic bit of captaincy. Joe Root was on 118 at the time, and Ollie Robinson had 17, the two of them were rattling along and common sense dictated they should be left to get on with it. But Stokes thought differently.

Well, the handful of extra runs England would have made/the precious time Stokes saved really told late on the fifth day.