Stewart happy with English fightback after horror start (5 January 1999)

5 January 1999

Stewart happy with English fightback after horror start

AFP

SYDNEY, Jan 5 (AFP) - England lost the Ashes series 3-1 to Australia but skipper Alec Stewart was delighted by the way his team fought back from two Tests down.

It was the sixth consecutive series England have lost to Australia, but Stewart was heartened by the fighting sprit shown by his players in the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

"We proved that when we're certainly right up against it we fight back well, " Stewart said.

"I said in Adelaide (third Test) the Ashes had gone and Australia deserved to keep hold of them and we would try to make it 2-all.

"We deserved the win in Melbourne, and we played well here, but not quite well enough and Australia deserved to win."

England were outplayed in the first three Tests and trailed 2-0 going into the Melbourne Test only to stage one of their greatest comebacks and conjure a 12-run win.

Stewart's men came to the final Test needing a victory to draw the series, but lost a vital toss and had to bat last against Stuart MacGill and Shane Warne on a spin-friendly Sydney Cricket Ground pitch.

Stewart, who lost all five toss to Mark Taylor, said two of them were particularly vital, in Adelaide and Sydney.

"We missed chances early on, Brisbane and Perth come to mind, and we weren't playing as well as we should have done and because of that we went 2-0 down.

"We were always trying to drag it back, we almost did, but not quite."

Stewart praised the contribution of batsmen, Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash, through the series, and Dean Headley had proved in a couple of Tests that he is a class bowler.

"Darren Gough just underlined just what we knew he could do and if we had held onto a few more catches he would have ended up the leading wicket-taker in the series and Alex Tudor emerged during the tour," he said.

Source :: AFP