Stokes, Smith agree two-day Tests not a good look after MCG carnage

Ben Stokes and Steve Smith agreed Saturday a Test match ending in two days was "not want you want", joining some of the biggest names in the game who attacked the state of the Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch.

Twenty wickets tumbled on day one of the fourth Test between Australia and England on Friday, with the hosts dismissed for 152 and the tourists just 110.

Another 16 were taken on day two, with the high-profile clash all over within 142 overs inside two days.

"When you go out there and you're faced with those conditions, you've got to crack on and deal with it," said England skipper Stokes after his side won by four wickets to end a  15-year drought on Australian soil.

"But being brutally honest, that's not really what you want.

"You know, Boxing Day Test match, you don't want a game finishing in less than two days.

"It's not ideal, but you can't change it once you start the game and you've just got to play what's in front of you."

Australian captain Smith said the 10 millimetres depth of grass made it difficult for batting with too much sideways movement off the seam for the bowlers.

"It was tricky. No one could really get in. I think when you see 36 wickets across two days, that's probably too much," he said.

"It probably did a little bit more than they wanted it to. Maybe if we dropped it down to eight millimetres, it would be about right.”

Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg said short Tests were bad for business with the carnage on Boxing Day the most wickets to fall on the first day of an Ashes Test since 1909.

It followed 19 wickets being taken on day one of the series opener in Perth, which also ended in two days and cost Cricket Australia millions of dollars in lost revenue.

"A simple phrase I'd use is short Tests are bad for business. I can't be much more blunt than that," he said.

"So I would like to see a slightly broader balance between the bat and the ball."

A host of former greats have been critical of the Melbourne pitch with former England captain Michael Vaughan on Saturday calling it "a joke".

"This is selling the game short," he added, while another ex-England skipper Alastair Cook branded it "an unfair contest".

Curators in Australia are traditionally independent when it comes to preparing pitches, both from captains and Cricket Australia.

Greenberg suggested a more interventionist approach might be needed.

"It's hard not to get more involved when you see the impact on the sport, especially commercially, he said.

"I'm not suggesting I'll go around talking to ground staff, but we do have to have a careful eye on what our expectations are over the course of a summer."

Smith laments lack of runs

Captain Steve Smith said Saturday that Australia had left themselves 60 runs short and could have taken a more aggressive batting approach, after they lost the fourth Test against England for a first home Ashes defeat in 15 years.

England came out on top of a seesawing contest at the Melbourne Cricket Ground played on a grassy bowler-friendly deck that made batting treacherous and was all over inside two days.

After being dismissed for 152 in their first innings, Australia managed only 132 in their second to leave England with 175 to chase for victory.

They got over the line with four wickets to spare.

"Obviously, a very quick game," Smith said.

"I think if we got 50 or 60 more runs across both innings, we might have been there at the end, but, credit to England.

"They came out today and fought really well this morning, didn't let us get away."

The victory ended England’s 18-match Test winless streak on Australian soil with an aggressive approach to the run chase by Ben Stokes's men paying off.

Ben Duckett and Harry Brook, in particular, reverted to the ultra-attacking "Bazball" style pioneered by coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Stokes.

Smith said it was something Australia would review in the wash-up.

"I think the guy with the most success on that wicket was probably Harry Brook, running down the wicket, playing some kind of rogue shots I suppose, and trying to get the bowlers off their lengths that way," he said.

"You know, whether we could have been a bit more proactive potentially, and played a few more of those. That's something we'll talk about.

"But in the end, it's also tricky to do that. You want to try and dig in for your team sometimes.

"You have to weigh up whether you should have gone harder, or you should have reined it in. And everyone's different the way they go about it as well."

Australia had already retained the Ashes after eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane and an 82-victory at Adelaide.

"We'd love to win every game and keep every streak going," Smith said of England snapping their long winless record in Australia.

"But England played really well today. We probably controlled the first half of the game, all yesterday, and then they came back into play today and took the game away from us."

Australia lead the series 3-1 with the fifth and final Test starting in Sydney on January 4.