England trounced Australia by 169 runs on the fourth Day of the first Ashes Test of 2015 at Cardiff on Saturday. Australia were completely outplayed by an all-round performance by Alastair Cook-led England.
However, Aussie head coach Darrren Lehmann thought otherwise and termed the loss as "a minor hiccup".
"It's a minor hiccup and now we've got to get back to it in four days time and play better than we have and show the discipline you require to make big runs on these type of wickets and bat a lot longer. They were better. Full stop. Better in all three disciplines - they caught everything.
"Yes they attacked, we knew that was going to be the case. I think that's the way everyone is starting to play which is great to see for the fans out there, I reckon it's a great spectacle. From our point of view, obviously a little bit disappointing with the way we played, but we knew they were going to be quite aggressive," Lehmann said in an interview to ESPN Cricinfo.
One would believe that Australia struggled to acclimatise with the conditions. The Aussies were left clueless in the second innings. The batsmen had to bat for a long instead of throwing their wickets away as they had two days in hand to chase down a total of 412 runs. But they crumbled on the fourth day itself.
"There was some good bowling from England there's no doubt about that, full credit to them. But our batters could probably stay in a little bit longer with shot selection I'd say, but having said that they're quality players and they'll come back well. From our point of view it's more of a case of a good, short turnaround for us," Lehmann said.
After Watson's dismal performance in the first Test at Cardiff, his position is under threat. Lehmann might consider Mitchell Marsh to replace Watson in the second Test.
"He's doing everything he possibly can to rectify that and first innings was a tight call ... so it's one of those things you've got to find a way and that's probably what we didn't do as a batting group, not just Shane.
"It's going to be a tight call heading into the second Test. We'll wait until we get to London and have a look at how everyone pulls up over the next couple of days," Lehmann said.
