Australia captain Ricky Ponting said his side had to address "fundamental skill errors" after presiding over his country's first Test defeat at Lord's in 75 years. England's 115-run win concluded on Monday in the second Test saw them take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series just over a week after they scrambled to a draw with one wicket standing in the first Test in Cardiff.
Ponting pinpointed the first innings, where Australia could only manage 215 in reply to England's 425, on a typically good batting pitch at Lord's, as a key factor in the eventual outcome. They then collapsed to 128 for five in their second innings, chasing a world record 522 to win, before a sixth-wicket stand of 185 between Michael Clarke, who made a superb 136, and wicket-keeper Brad Haddin (80) revived Australia.
However, both men lost their wickets as England took the five they needed for victory before lunch on Monday, with fast bowler Andrew Flintoff (three) and off-spinner Graeme Swann (two) doing the damage. "There are fundamental skill errors that we have made in this game," Ponting told reporters here on Monday.
"I'm not just talking about the bowling. We didn't bat very well either in our first innings. Two hundred-odd on that wicket was a long way short of what we needed to get. "The first two days was where the game was decided. I was pretty happy with the way we stuck at things for the remainder of the game. It's just little skill errors that have cost us big time."
Ponting insisted the teams remained evenly matched, unlike the 2006/07 Ahes where he led Australia to a 5-0 whitewash of their oldest foes. It's grabbing the momentum when you can and running with it for as long as you can that's going to decide this series," he said. "If you look at this game, they grabbed the momentum on day one, ran with it, and we found it hard to wrest it back.
"A lot of Test matches are won with what happens in the first hour's play. We were a fair bit off at the start of this game and we have to make sure we're a whole lot better when we start the third one." England captain Andrew Strauss was delighted by the way his side had bounced back from a mediocre performance in Cardiff.
"It was pretty much the ideal response," said Strauss. "It was important we came out and started the game well. "We'd been given that little bit of momentum from the way the guys played that final day in Cardiff and we needed to build on that. "We came out well and put the Aussies under pressure for the first three-and-a-half days, but as is always a case in an Ashes Test they come back at you at some stage.
"To go 1-0 up in the series is all you can ask for and if we can continue playing that brand of consistent, positive cricket then we'll put them under pressure again and then it's just a case of us taking our chances." The third Test starts at Edgbaston on July 30.
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