Joe Root felt England gave a timely demonstration of its calm under pressure after blowing Ireland away at Lord's on Friday.
Set 182 for a historic maiden Test victory, the visitors crumbled to 38 all out – Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad sharing all 10 wickets in a masterful demonstration of seam and swing in helpful conditions.
It meant England's blushes were spared after a dismal 85 all out on the first morning left them staring at a humiliating defeat.
"I know that that was a lot of runs on this surface," Root said at the post-match presentation, before alluding to last year's dramatic win over India in similar circumstance at Edgbaston – the venue for next week's first Ashes Test against Australia.
"We've been in this position before, we found ourselves in a similar position at Edgbaston last year so we knew that we'd been able to manage a similar sort of scenario.
"I think it was important that we stayed calm, in control of what we wanted to do and asked the right questions - and that's exactly what we did."
Woakes' Test-best figures of 6-17 extended his phenomenal record at Lord's, while Broad's 4-19 wrought further torment upon the overmatched Ireland batting order.
"Both me and Woakesy would roll these conditions up today and take them everywhere with us," Broad told BBC Sport. "You fancy defending anything in these conditions.
"The biggest part of this match was us picking up 10 wickets on day one because if Ireland had got a huge lead that would have been it.
"A lot has happened in two and a half days!"
Ireland captain Will Porterfield called on his Test rookies to take lessons from an ultimately bruising experience that promised so much.
"It all happened pretty quickly - they exploited the overcast conditions," he said.
"All the dismissals were lbw, bowled or caught by slip or keeper - the exact dismissals a bowling side is looking for on that pitch in these conditions.
"It's a big learning curve for the lads."
Comments
SHARE