The Telegraph Cricket Podcast · The Telegraph

England humiliated after blowing golden opportunity

·35 min·2 clips

England were 100 runs ahead with nine wickets left and still lost.

1. The Telegraph Cricket Podcast covers England's defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test in Perth after only two days. 2. Jake Goodwill hosts with chief cricket correspondent Nick Holt and cricket news correspondent Will McPherson, who explain why the result matters for England's tour. 3. The episode asks how England wasted a golden opportunity, whether Travis Head changed the game, and what the loss means for Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key. 4. Goodwill says England were not expecting to record another podcast so soon because the first Test finished after two days. 5. Holt describes Perth as stunned and says Australian fans and tour groups reacted as if they could not believe what they had seen. 6. McPherson says England looked on top after day one but still let the game slip by lunch on day two. 7. Holt argues England were beaten because they did not handle a difficult period after lunch when Scott Boland kept hitting a fourth- and fifth-stump line. 8. He says Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Joe Root formed the batting group that let England down. 9. McPherson says England's camp sounded hurt, and he describes Ben Stokes as unusually downcast after the match. 10. He adds that England have 11 days before the next Test and may use that time for golf and recovery rather than more immediate cricket. 11. Holt says most of England's collapse came from poor batting rather than from Australia's bowling alone. 12. He says Mitchell Starc was brilliant throughout and that England should have been able to cope with that attack. 13. McPherson calls Travis Head's innings phenomenal and says it will be replayed on Australian television for years. 14. He explains that Head came out to open because Usman Khawaja had back spasms, and even Nathan Lyon was discussed as an opening option. 15. Holt says England's first-innings pace attack, including Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson and Ben Stokes, had Australia rattled. 16. McPherson says Head still exposed a drop in England's speed and a loss of control once the chase began. 17. The discussion turns to Joe Root, whose record in Australia remains a concern after a match in which he scored eight runs. 18. The tone is analytical and blunt, with both hosts giving live-match detail, score context and selection consequences rather than broad summaries. 19. Cricket fans following the Ashes and England's batting order would get the most from this episode. 20. Casual listeners looking for a light cricket recap may skip it.

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