Ben Stokes believes England have got what it takes to fight back in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide after Australia completely dominated day two.
The day started with the Test match hanging in the balance but the Australians turned things in their favour as Michael Clarke (148) and Brad Haddin (118) put on a double-century stand.
A late flurry from Ryan Harris, who smashed 55 off 54 balls, potentially put another nail in England’s coffin as the Baggy Greens declared on 570-9 with 21 overs left in the day.
Mitchell Johnson soon ripped into England and when he took the wicket of captain Alastair Cook, the tourists looked to be in deep trouble.
However, Michael Carberry and Joe Root dug in as England finished on 35-1 at the close and Stokes says they are capable of piling on the runs on day three.
“It’s been a pretty tough two days but it’s nice to eventually get off the pitch and concentrate on what we’ve got to do with the bat,” he said.
“We’ve just got to go out there and do what we do. There’s a lot of talent in the batting line-up and we know that we’ve got the skills to do it and try to put a big score on ourselves.”
Stokes added: “It (the pitch) hasn’t really sort of broken up like we thought it would with it being so dry. It’s still a very good batting wicket and hopefully we can capitalise on how good it is.
“We didn’t want to give any more away and give them the upper hand. As it is, we go in tomorrow with nine wickets left and we can pile them on tomorrow.”
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