Ben Stokes believes England did "literally everything we possibly could" to pressure a outcome within the drawn fourth Ashes Test at Emirates Old Trafford, delivering a "pretty much perfect" efficiency in a sport they "completely and utterly" dominated.

England led by 275 runs on first innings after profitable the toss, bowling Australia out for 317 earlier than racking up 592 in 107.4 overs, and led by 61 runs heading into the ultimate day with Australia 5 wickets down of their second innings.

But after rain had restricted the fourth day's play to 30 overs, it compelled a complete washout on Sunday, denying England the chance to push for victory and leaving Australia 2-1 up heading into the ultimate Test at The Oval subsequent week - thereby retaining the Ashes urn.

"The cricket we got in, in this game, was potentially an opportunity for a team to play it safe; to wait and see what the outcome might be," Stokes mentioned. "We didn't do that. We definitely didn't shy away from what we needed to do.

"We're all the time placing our entrance foot ahead and attempting to press the sport as onerous as we probably may. As a captain, that is one thing that makes me very proud as a pacesetter of the ten different guys on the market. It's simply unlucky that we managed to get three hours in over the past two days."

"The weather didn't help us and we can't change that. It's a tough pill to swallow, knowing that's the reason we sit here with a draw, but we've done everything we possibly could in the hours of play we managed to get. We were completely and utterly dominant throughout the hours of play we had. It's a shame, but, oh well."

Ben Stokes believes his crew have "already done wonders" for Test cricket in England•Getty Images

When requested to check how he felt in Manchester to his feelings after England's defeats within the first two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord's, Stokes mentioned: "I think they're completely different.

"We clearly performed some sensible cricket in these video games, [but] we performed some cricket that we knew we may have been higher at. But on this sport I am unable to truly look again and suppose, 'We may have been higher there', as a result of we have been just about excellent all through the entire sport.

"Bowling Australia out and then scoring the runs that we did at the pace that we did - I can't really say we got anything wrong about this game, to be honest. It is tough to say we ended up with a draw when we've dominated the cricket that we've managed to get in."

"It's very similar to 2019, when we had to go to The Oval and win to draw the series," Stokes mentioned. "We'll have to get over the disappointment of today and then focus on that game. It is a massive game for us and 2-2 sounds a lot better than 3-1.

"The mentality and mindset throughout the dressing-room is to exit and win. Go again to the Pakistan sequence, the place we may have taken it straightforward in that final sport figuring out we might received the sequence however we did not. We nonetheless went out with the identical mentality of how we needed to play our cricket.

"Every time we walk out on the field, that's all I encourage the players to do: just concentrate on what you need to do as an individual to influence a game in the right way. If it doesn't happen, you've still got an opportunity to do that in a different way or a different session. Everything we do is to try and be positive and get a result for England."

Stokes acknowledged {that a} decider at The Oval would have been "a very, very special week in the history of English cricket" however mentioned that his crew have "already done wonders" for the game throughout the nation.

"It would have elevated everything that the series has already done for Test cricket, especially in England," he mentioned. "But I think what we've managed to do, up until today anyway, has already done wonders for cricket in England.

"I believe we'll nonetheless have the help that now we have performed all through the sequence subsequent week. We'll be treating it as each different sport and I hope the help we get will nonetheless be there or thereabouts, as if it was 2-2."

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98