England won a thrilling first Test against Australia at Trent Bridge, Nottingham by just 14 runs on Sunday (July 14) after James Anderson claimed 5-73 on a tense fifth and final day – chasing 311, the last-wicket pair of Brad Haddin and James Pattinson put on 65 runs, taking the total to 296 and the brink of a famous victory.
Alastair Cook, England captain“Yeah I felt pretty calm because I felt we would create some chances. It was a fifth-day wicket. You always have to sometimes … in the heat of the moment you can panic a little bit but I felt that you have to look at the conditions. There was reverse swing of the ball ,and there was some spin. And you just felt we would give ourselves some chances to take.
James Anderson, man-of-the-match“Yeah, I am just delighted with the way that things went. We knew it was going to be difficult this morning, their tail is very strong so we knew we had to bowl well. But I found some rhythm this morning which the captain cottoned on to and gave me 13 overs so I’m just delighted. It did get tight and as Cooky said we stayed calm even when they were getting closer and closer, so that was the key to us winning the game I think.”
Michael Clarke, Australia captain“I hope we have earned a bit of respect by the way we have played. That is what is important. Our team is going to ‘give our all’ (try their hardest) every time we take to the field. We are here to win this series. We know it is going to be tough and we have just experienced that over five days. But to the people that have written us off and or did write us off before a ball was bowled, I think we might have changed a few of their minds.”
“I don’t think it will be that difficult (to motivate the players and cheer them up) to be honest. I think that if you walked into our changing room now, you would see some disappointed people, there is no doubt about it. We felt so close to winning this Test match. But I guarantee they will be counting the next four days down to the start of the second Test. I think that is just the group we have at the moment. The guys are full of energy and we want to have success on this tour. So they only way to do it is to get on the park and try your best like I think we did over the past five days.”
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