Ben Stokes cheers Jofra Archer's ‘amazing effort' as England edge out India
Stokes and Archer were the central pillars in a nerve-racking super over success against New Zealand on July 14, 2019, at Lord's, where the pair shared six India wickets on Monday to seal a 22-run victory.
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It was Archer's first Test after a four-and-a-half-year absence and Stokes went with a hunch to hand him the ball first thing when India resumed on 58 for four chasing 193 on the final day.
Archer claimed the crucial wicket of Rishabh Pant, knocking his off-stump out of the ground, then took a terrific catch off his own bowling to see off Washington Sundar and put England on top.
The hosts had a few nervy moments before moving 2-1 up in the series, with two to play, but Stokes admitted Archer's involvement went a long way to swinging things in their favour.
'I just had this gut feeling that something was going to happen in Jof's first time back in the Test match team, sometimes your gut works, I guess,' England captain Stokes said at the presentation ceremony.
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'It's six years to the day (since the 2019 World Cup final) and Jof had a major part in that. I just had one of those feelings that he was going to do something special and he managed to crack the game open with those two wickets.
'Every time he gets announced on the tannoy that he's going to bowl, you just hear the ground erupt and when he turns it on, the feeling in the game just changes. What an amazing effort from him to get through those overs. He got some crucial wickets for us and it's great to have him back.'
Stokes admitted he was a 'shadow' of his normal self following a hard five days at Headingley but he went up a notch at the home of cricket.
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He followed up a nine-over spell in the morning session, in which he ended the dogged resistance of KL Rahul, with a 10-over burst after lunch, making the only breakthrough in the session by winkling out the resolute Jasprit Bumrah.
'I thought I'd taken myself to some pretty dark places before but today was…but look, bowling to win a Test match for your country, if that doesn't get you up, I don't know what does,' Stokes said.
Stokes, whose 77 runs and five wickets across the Test as well as the crucial first-innings run out of Pant saw him receive the player of the match award, added: 'I'm not going to lie, I cannot wait to just lie on my bed for four days and then be raring to go for (next week's fourth Test at) Manchester.'
India captain Shubman Gill was optimistic the tourists would get over the line and in Ravindra Jadeja, who made 61 not out off 181 balls, they had hope but he ran out of partners.
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'There was plenty of batting left in our side so I was pretty confident this morning but England kept attacking,' Gill said. 'They played better than us.'
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