James Anderson lauded the greatest Test win of his England career and revealed how he and man-of-the-match Ollie Robinson kept each other going.
The day five efforts of England’s seamers to see their team over the line on the flattest pitch any of them had laid eyes on was a herculean effort once their spinners were hit out of the attack in the morning session.
Anderson and Robinson shared eight wickets between them across 46 overs, while Ben Stokes sent down 20 of his own including 11 off the reel between lunch and tea.
And England’s evergreen 40-year-old revealed the simple mantras that the players used to keep the energy levels high.
“The lads are saying that is the best away victory,” said Anderson. “But I can't remember many better than that at home either to be honest.
“To force the result on that wicket just took an absolutely mammoth effort from everyone.
“We knew from quite early on, it was going to be a long day for us. But to get a Test win you have to put that effort in.
“But I just thought we kept each other going. There were times when one of us would flag and then the other one would have to pick him up. And just say things keep going.
“Things like ‘keep your legs up, pick your legs up. Just keep running in, just focus on the next ball.’ Just keep it really simple.
“Trying to have a laugh out there as well thinking about different fields to set. I just thought it was an amazing effort from everyone.”
And Robinson agreed that Stokes and coach Baz McCullum also played their part in the breaks in play to help cajole the players towards victory.
He said: “Baz would say a few words just before we came out at lunch and tea and then Stokes would echo that and say ‘we're one wicket away, we're two wickets away.’
“And then we knew that we had that opportunity if we could get them six down, so all day we kept repeating, get them six down, get them six down we know we can win.
“I have never seen a flatter pitch than that. I’ve never not been able to bounce the ball over the stumps.”
Spare a thought though for Joe Root, who was worried he had cost his team victory by moving out of the way of an edge at slip to leave room for Ollie Pope to dive when he didn’t.
The former England skipper had been suffering with illness throughout the game, but a failure to win after that would have made him feel truly sick.
“I feel like Rooty was nervous at the end,” added Anderson. “He didn't want it to get through to the end without creating another chance.
“Rooty had been off the field every half an hour puking up throughout the game, so it was an amazing effort from him.
“I still can't quite believe we got a result on that pitch. It's just incredible.”
