Ben Stokes responds to claims England snubbed post-Ashes drinks with Australia

Ben Stokes has denied claims England deliberately snubbed the traditional post-Ashes drinks with Australia and says the two teams met up at a nightclub later in the evening.

England produced a magical day of cricket at the Oval on Monday, taking 10 wickets to level the five-match series at 2-2 as Stuart Broad ended his career with the winning wicket.

Although the series was drawn and Australia retained the urn, the hosts can claim a moral victory of sorts having been in a commanding position at Old Trafford in the fourth Test before it was rained off.

As ever in the Ashes, the contest was not without controversy and the stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s prompted England head coach Brendon McCullum to say he did not think his side would be ‘having a beer any time soon’ with their opposite numbers.

Australia’s players and staff briefly thought England had followed through on that threat on Monday evening, with the two teams not sharing their usual post-series drinks at the Oval.

According to reports in the Australian media, players including Steve Smith were seen peering into the England dressing room after play but were locked out, before the squad eventually left the Oval at around 10.45pm – some four hours after play had finished.

But England captain Stokes has now clarified the situation and says his side were held up by extended retirement presentations in the dressing room, with both Broad and Moeen Ali playing their final games for the country.

Directly responding to the reports, Stokes tweeted in the early hours of Monday morning: ‘To clarify, our wrap took longer than expected because of multiple last-time events.

‘We decided to meet up in the nightclub rather than the dressing room.’

Despite the often hostile atmosphere between the two sides, particularly after the Lord’s episode, tensions appeared to ease more recently and Australia were full of praise for their opponents, and the retiring Broad, following their loss on Monday.

There was still room for one last controversy, though, with Australia unhappy with a ball change that seemed to gift England a far shinier Dukes ball – and prompted a flurry of wickets at the start of day five and continued to move around until late in the evening.

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting went as far as calling for an investigation into the ‘huge blunder’ while Usman Khawaja was also unhappy afterwards, telling the Nine Network: ‘The big thing was that ball.

‘As soon as they changed that ball, the first over, I knew straight away this ball is very different. It was disappointing for us because I felt like we had a real stranglehold on that game and today that ball was at 90 overs and it was still hooping around corners.’

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