Twitter Reactions: Australia wraps up the first Test with a comprehensive 10-wicket victory

Those pundits, who said that England won’t be able to challenge the Aussies in their den without Ben Stokes, are currently flashing a broad smile on their face. The first Test of this season’s Ashes went as it was meant to be, the strong home side outplaying their opponents from West and winning the match by 10 wickets.

But the complexion of the game was completely different for the first couple of days. An inexperienced English side scored 302 runs against a bowling attack which features the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. Guided by Stuart Broad, their bowling department also did a commendable job by getting the hosts all out for 328.

But that was officially the end of Three Lions’ resilience. The Aussie bowlers started doing, in the second innings, what they should have done in the first innings itself- make life miserable for the English batters. Starc, Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon picked up 3 wickets each to wrap up the English innings for mere 195 runs.

The sting was already taken out of the competition since you don’t come to Australia expecting you’ll bundle the Australian batting within 170. But what was unexpected was a hands down surrender from Anderson & Co. After a match-defining 141 runs in the first innings, Steve Smith played the role of a spectator since the openers Cameron Bancroft and David Warner reached the target quite comfortably.

While Warner amassed 87 runs in just 119 balls, his 25-year-old Western Australian partner played a slow and steady knock of 82 runs from 182 deliveries. However, at a time when the rest of the pack had their heads bowed down, Steve Smith‘s perfect captain’s knock of 141 rightfully won him the man of the match award.

His counterpart, Joe Root has to get back his team quickly, since the second Test starts from 2nd December, which will be played at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide. The Aussie fans expressed their euphoria on Twitter, as there was no end for praises hurled at Smith. On the other hand, the English fans were quite disappointed by the way the game transpired, especially after the first 2 days.

Here are the top tweets from the match: