Immense Ben Stokes inspires nailbiting win over India

Times

4 days ago

The end, when it finally came, happened almost in slow motion. In a match where fast bowling had prevailed, amid plenty of blood and thunder from both sides, Shoaib Bashir floated one up gently towards Mohammed Siraj, who defended on the back foot, and then watched, transfixed, as the ball spun back from the turf with just enough pace to knock one bail from its perch.
Left hand heavily strapped, to protect the broken finger on his non-bowling hand from taking more damage, Bashir took off in celebration. He was ruled out of the remainder of the series immediately after the match, so this will be his last contribution of the series, an important one for sure, given how determined India were, with the canny Ravindra Jadeja leading the way, to take the match down to the wire.
Bashir had been on the field only sporadically and could have expected to play no further part once four wickets had tumbled in the morning, to leave India eight down at lunch, and the match, to all intents and purposes, over. But India have cricketers of character and fight, and Ben Stokes was forced to call upon Bashir after tea, with the clock showing almost 5pm, to take the innings towards the second new ball, with one wicket still needed for victory.
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Six years ago to the day Lord's had witnessed the most remarkable finish to any cricket match, when the World Cup final was decided on a boundary countback after a Super Over. Now the game delivered an extraordinary finish again, with two of the protagonists from that day, Stokes and Jofra Archer, taking centre stage. In the context of Test cricket, it doesn't often get as tight as a 22-run winning margin.
Stokes had to dig deep into his reserves, on a day when he put the worries about his ageing body to one side and peeled off two mighty spells, one of nine overs in the morning and one of ten overs in the afternoon. He took the key wicket of KL Rahul, but kept pounding in after that, as India's resistance grew to the point where victory looked not quite so implausible as it had done in the morning. Inevitably, it was Stokes who broke that resistance by dismissing Jasprit Bumrah as well.
Stokes's was an immense contribution in this match, with bat, ball and in the field, as player and leader. He made vital runs in both innings, took key wickets and, not least, effected the critical run-out of Rishabh Pant in the first innings, when India were cruising towards a first-innings lead. He looked out on his feet at the end and will enjoy the lengthy break now before the Old Trafford Test. What a cricketer and captain he is.
Archer enjoyed a successful return. He dismissed the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal in both innings, but his biggest impact came on the final morning, when Stokes threw him the ball at the start of play and he delivered two big wickets: Pant, first of all, and then Washington Sundar. The dangerous wicketkeeper was the batsman England wanted most of all, and Archer, so good against left-handers, uprooted Pant's off stump 15 minutes into play.
But let us not forget India's champion all-rounder, Jadeja, who fought a lone hand on the final day — in terms of run-making — batting for more than four hours to make an unbeaten 61, as he edged his team towards the winning line. He found great support from Bumrah, who batted for 108 minutes and 54 balls in making five runs (52 dot balls among them), and Siraj, who, until he played on to Bashir, had defended stoutly for a little over an hour. What a competitor Jadeja showed himself to be.
Stokes admitted that it was the memory of the World Cup final, and the dawning of the six-year anniversary of it, that persuaded him to give Archer the ball at the start of the day from the Pavilion End. This was no straightforward decision, because Brydon Carse had brought England back into the match the evening before from that end, with the wickets of Karun Nair and Shubman Gill.
Archer, himself, had bowled his worst spell of the game in that evening session, but Stokes went with his gut and how it paid off. Pant, so dangerous in these situations, charged at Archer once and unveiled a one-handed swipe for four, but two balls later, after a tentative forward push, had his off stump flattened. Archer offered some choice words as Pant walked off, then flung himself to his right to take a supremely athletic return catch off Sundar.
In a match where there was plenty of spice and niggle, tempers flared as Carse and Jadeja collided mid-pitch, although the impact was entirely accidental, after Jadeja had deflected the ball towards third man, with both players ball-watching rather than minding each other's path. In this game, though, it has not taken much kindling to spark the flames and Stokes, if you please, moved in as peace-maker, standing between both players, as they exchanged pleasantries.
England's morning was made complete when Stokes won a leg-before decision on review over Rahul and when Chris Woakes found the edge of Nitish Reddy's bat on the stroke of lunch. Reddy had looked secure and settled, as the ball softened and the pitch died, but England went through the Long Room pleased with themselves, the match — surely? — settled, with India 112 for eight and still 81 runs away from their target.
The crowd sat rapt, despite the slow run rate. At one point, in the morning, there were 80 balls between boundaries; in the second session there came a gap of 109 balls. In the afternoon, one wicket fell in 31 overs, and only 51 runs were scored. The tension, though, was palpable. Occasionally, spectators were set free from biting their nails: England won a leg-before against Jadeja, 26, overturned on review, after which he hammered the next ball into the stand for six. India's supporters were delirious for a moment.
Bumrah, who had played such an important hand with the bat here in India's famous win in 2021, defended as if his life depended on it and it was only when Stokes turned to a short-pitched ploy, that his composure deserted him. Finally, in the 62nd over, he spooned a short ball from Stokes to mid-on, where Sam Cook, on for Bashir, took a backpedalling catch. Siraj, short of pocket money, having been fined 15 per cent of his match fee overnight, looked determined to win back some of it in prize money, until playing on to Bashir.
Siraj had been fined and slapped with a demerit point for an overreaction to Ben Duckett's wicket the day before. Forgive me for degrading the report of a great match with this nonsense, but wouldn't spectators rather see players caring too much, rather than too little about playing Test cricket; caring too much, rather than too little, about playing for their country?
No one, of course, wants to see physical altercations on the field of play, or sustained nasty verbal abuse. There should be no place, for example, for the shoulder barge that Virat Kohli initiated in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last Christmas, when he diverted from his path to deliberately walk into Sam Konstas. But there was none of that here, just two teams full of passionate intensity, commitment and skill. What a Test match they gave us.