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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
England's unlikely win a beautiful reward for approach under Ben Stokes
Now, I know what you're thinking. Truth is I've thought the same way myself. India scored five centuries, their fielders dropped six catches, and missed two other opportunities besides. Their best bowler took an important wicket off what turned out to be a no-ball; Chris Woakes, the man leading England's attack managed one wicket in the match; Josh Tongue, their big strapping quick, only dismissed one member of the opposition's top six, and that was when he had already scored a hundred runs, and Shoaib Bashir gave up the large part of 200 runs. Oh, and England put the opposition in, and conceded the best part of 500. And at the end of it all, they won. And this time the No 11 didn't even have to bat. It was a match which they might well have lost. Maybe they should have. But it was also a match which any number of England sides before them wouldn't even have tried to win. In the first 142 years of Test cricket England have scored over 300 runs in the fourth innings to win a Test exactly three times, and in the last six years of Test cricket England have scored over 300 runs in the fourth innings to win a Test exactly three times, once when Ben Stokes scored his 135 here to beat Australia, and now twice when he's been captain. For Stokes, the odds are just the numbers in between the evens. England never even admitted the possibility that this game might be headed any other way. People sometimes ask what a player needs to do to get dropped from this squad. Maybe the answer is that they'd need to talk about whether they ought to play for a draw in a team meeting. On Monday night the players, and coaches, recoiled from the mere idea that they might have to consider it. They carried that ringing sense of conviction into the day's play. Long passages of the morning seemed to be taking place in a dream. Headingley had been wrapped in a cloud, and the city around the ground was lost from view, the lights were on, so it was bright enough despite the gloomy mood, and while it drizzled all through the morning no one seemed to think it was wet enough to stop the game. In the middle, England's openers made the enormously difficult job of batting in such difficult conditions seem so uncannily easy that the first three hours of play passed like one of those Norwegian slow TV shows that consist of a live feed from the driver's carriage on the 9.15am from Oslo to Bergen. By the time everyone snapped out of it, roundabout the moment Shardul Thakur took two wickets in two balls in the mid-afternoon, England only needed another 118 runs, and had enough batting to come that the odd wobbles they suffered along the way barely raised the spectators' heart rates. It was, by England's standards, one of the more humdrum stunning victories, a quotidian bit of fourth-innings-delivery work. They made the improbable seem inevitable. When it was done, and Jamie Smith had belted the winning runs out over midwicket, all the criticism that came their way over the first four days seemed a bit beside the point. Even so, you just know that there will be no end of people who want to tell Stokes 'I told you so'. Their play in this game was a refined version of the way this team used to go about it, more cautious, for sure, and more willing to allow that there are moments in every match when batsmen need to dig in against a team bowling as well as India did at points in this fourth innings. But English cricket still seems to be full of people trying to wrap their heads around it, who say they are staggered by his big decisions, who want to castigate his batsmen for getting caught on the boundary trying to hit a second six, like Smith did in the first innings, or give Stokes stick for getting caught playing a reverse sweep. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion In seven weeks we'll see whether they can win this series, and in seven months we'll see whether they can win the Ashes. English cricket is pitiless on teams that go to Australia and get beaten, and you can wager that if this lot end up losing then the team, and the management, will be torn up all over again. Whichever way it all plays out now, three years into Stokes' captaincy, and one win into a run of 10 games that will define how it all goes down, it might just be time to stop worrying and enjoy it. They are the most entertaining Test team England have had in 20 years, and the most successful one they have had in 10.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
The England player who might become a problem for Ben Stokes - and could it be time for a star to return? BUMBLE ON THE TEST
The stage is set for a compelling fifth day of the first Test between England and India, with all results still on the table. Ben Stokes' side need 350 more runs to win and have all their wickets in hand after the openers survived a stint late in the day. Here, Mail Sport's David Lloyd gives his take on day four - assessing which player could be under threat and offering a timely reminder... catches win matches. What, no somersault? Rishabh Pant is box office. It is fabulous to see him back after his near-fatal car crash in 2022. He is supremely talented and a real entertainer. But where was his somersault celebration on Monday? Come on Rishabh! I bet he's a beggar to play against as he rubs the opposition up the wrong way. We are in for a real treat watching him throughout this five-Test series. The value of digging in A batsman needs a good defence in Test cricket, as KL Rahul proved during his brilliant innings. Cricket lovers appreciate when a batsman has to dig in before accelerating when the going gets easier. For all their Twenty20 experience in the IPL, India 's batsmen have shown they also have sound defensive techniques and excellent concentration. Ben's Bashir problem Shoaib Bashir is 21 and he already has 61 Test wickets. He gets total backing from Ben Stokes. However, will he become a problem later in the series? India are pretty comfortable against him. In the first innings, he took one for 100. In the second, it was two for 90 and he went at more than four an over. What will England do with him now? It could be Jofra time Phil and Kirsty have Location, Location, Location. Cricket has rotation, rotation, rotation. With Tests coming thick and fast, England will want to rotate their attack. So all eyes are on Jofra Archer, who had his first bowl with a red ball in four years at Durham on Monday. If he is fit and firing, England have got a bit of stardust. Can't catch a break Both teams have been shelling catches. When I was a coach, that was arguably the most frustrating part of the job. It isn't a lack of preparation, either. Concentration, visibility, the weather and the slope all play a part. Trust me, nobody is more disappointed than the player who spills the catch. All together now… catches win matches. Ground to stir memories I love coming to Headingley to reminisce about my Roses games here. After play, David Bairstow would lead the charge to the Original Oak, which had a bowling green and we would sometimes 'have an end'. Then it was the Three Horseshoes 'for a couple' before Bryan's for 'Addock 'n' chips. Great days, great company. Boycott in fine form My wife and I were entertained at the weekend by Yorkshire vice chair Phillip Hodson and his wife Sally Ann. She is Tony Greig's sister. Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Lady Rachael were there and Geoffrey was in great form. It was wonderful to see him deep in conversation with Sunil Gavaskar. Top hospitality. They do it right in Yorkshire.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Shoaib Bashir is improving and doing exactly what Ben Stokes wants
It is the most sacred taboo in Test cricket. When the bowling side comes off the field at an interval, the fielders must always wait for the batsmen to cross the boundary first. Then the fielding captain follows, his players bringing up the rear. The tea interval on day four of the opening Test gave us an illustration of how sacred this taboo is. India's batsmen walked off to take tea in their dressing room, or perhaps it was chai prepared by their very own chef? But the England fielders could not follow. Their captain Ben Stokes was still 20 yards away, on the field, talking busily to his 21-year-old spinner Shoaib Bashir. We can deduce from three facts that what Stokes was giving Bashir was not an earful so much as encouragement. Firstly, Bashir has basically been Stokes' pet project from the start, the player whom he personally picked from nowhere almost two years ago, with a view to becoming England's answer to Nathan Lyon in this winter's Ashes. Secondly, and more immediately, Stokes kept Bashir going for a couple more overs after the tea interval, until the second ball was available, having bowled him from the Football Stand End all afternoon while Rishabh Pant was firing on every cylinder. To concede only four runs an over, against Indian batsmen, on a ground that has favoured seamers, with a fast outfield, in a helpful but gusty crosswind, has to be judged a decent six-out-of-10 effort for a senior spinner, seven out of 10 for a rookie. It was no field day, like the one Bashir enjoyed against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, yet he kept England in this game until the second new ball worked its less-subtle charms and kept their target within range. Bashir bowled 46 balls at Pant. How many were dots? Almost two-thirds: Pant did not score off 28 of them. A theory being aired is that India's batsmen are toying with Bashir, even keeping him on, deliberately not hitting him out of the attack, so that they can carry on milking him. I would agree that India's main batsmen were at little risk of being dismissed by Bashir, but they did not rein themselves in intentionally. Had he bowled dross, India would have dispatched it, as they did when Joe Root also tried his hand at off-spin and was hit for four, six (a tracer-bullet Pant fired over long-off) and fours off three consecutive balls. Pant did not hurtle through his 90s – he did not want to get out in them for the eighth time. He was intent on reaching his astonishing landmark, of two centuries in one Test, with singles and minimal risk. It would be no surprise if Stokes complimented Bashir on his resilience under Pant's fire as they held their conversation on the field before tea: Pant's two sixes off Bashir, whacked over long-on, occurred when Stokes gave him no fielder there. Pant, conceivably, might not have taken up the challenge if there had been a man there. Bashir then took the brilliant wicketkeeper-batsman's wicket, Zak Crawley catching the Indian maestro at long-on, reward for the off-spinner's perseverance. Bashir could even claim to have dismissed Pant twice in this match as Jamie Smith missed a standard stumping in India's first innings. Shoaib Bashir dismisses Rishabh Pant for 118 🏏 We won't forget his innings in a hurry 👏 — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 23, 2025 India's spinner Ravindra Jadeja has not taken a wicket yet in this game, while back in the 2019 Ashes Test here, Lyon, with plenty of runs to play with, took only two scalps in England's second innings, in addition to the most famous of all run-out misses. This summer Bashir has distinctly improved, by straightening his run-up and getting closer to the stumps, by getting more drift away from right-handers and keeping a more consistent line instead of drifting down the leg side. Long-hops and full-tosses have become a rarity, unlike last winter and summer. The third piece of evidence that Bashir in India's second innings achieved what his captain asked of him? Stokes brought him back on after Josh Tongue and Chris Woakes had all but run through India's lower order with the second new ball. Bashir immediately dismissed Prasidh Krishna with the sort of slog that used to characterise all No 11s, further reward for his effort.
The National
6 days ago
- Sport
- The National
Rishabh Pant stamps his authority on England with another century to put India in control of Test
Rishabh Pant proved why he is considered one of the best players in Test cricket as the Indian wicketkeeper-batter hit his second century of the first Test against England at Headingley. Pant completed a 130-ball ton, to go with his first innings score of 134, as India's second innings lead went past 350 on Day 4 in Yorkshire. The left-handed keeper batter became the first Indian to score hundreds in both innings of a Test against England. He also became only the second wicketkeeper in Test history to score hundreds in both innings of a Test following Andy Flower's scores of 142 and 199 not out for Zimbabwe against South Africa at Harare in 2001. Pant's innings included including 13 fours and two sixes as India upped the ante in the second session to reach 298-4 in 75 overs. He was out for 118, caught by Zak Crawley off the bowling of Shoaib Bashir. While Pant went on the attack, opening batter KL Rahul was all about technique as he reached three figures with minimum fuss. After a morning session in which India captain Shubman Gill was the only batsman dismissed, Rahul and Pant raised the tempo in contrasting styles as India scored 80 runs in the first hour of the second session. Rahul hit off-spinner Bashir for a textbook cover-drive four, while Pant edged Josh Tongue through a vacant second slip position and, on the next ball, thrashed him through the covers. Another edge through the cordon took Pant to 49 before he completed an 83-ball fifty. He then took on Bashir, driving the young spinner for two sixes in three balls. Rahul, meanwhile, completed a 202-ball century featuring 13 fours. It was his ninth century in 59 Tests. Pant and Rahul's stand was worth 195 runs. The first fifty runs took 19 overs, the second took 12 overs, and the third just six overs as they absorbed England's attack on a lively pitch in the morning before letting loose after lunch. But the star of the day was Pant. A month back, Rishabh Pant was enduring a torrid time, wondering where the next run on next win would come from as the new wicketkeeper, captain and star batter of the Lucknow franchise in the IPL. But just as he struggles in white-ball format, Pant almost always delivers in red-ball cricket. The open spaces and absence of fielding restrictions mean Pant can build the innings at his own pace. And his natural rate of scoring is very high, which becomes highly effective in Tests but seems average in shorter formats. It has been a stunning return to cricket for Pant, who back in 2022 was severely injured in a life-threatening car crash but made an earlier than expected return to competitive cricket. He was a member of the victorious national team in the 2024 T20 World Cup and went on to become the most expensive player in the history of the IPL. And now, Pant, who is the vice-captain of the side, has hit back-to-back tons in the opening Test.
India Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- India Today
ENG vs IND: Rishabh Pant becomes 2nd wicketkeeper to score twin centuries in a Test
India wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant etched his name in history books as he scored his second century of the ongoing Test match against England at Headingley, Leeds. The swashbuckling batter became just the second wicketkeeper batter in the history of the game to score twin centuries in a Test joined Zimbabwe's Andy Flower in an elite list, who achieved the feat back in 2001 vs South Africa in Harare. Pant also became the seventh Indian to achieve the feat. Earlier, he scored a magnificent 134 in the first innings and registered his seventh Test hundred, becoming the India wicketkeeper with most centuries in Test vs IND 1st Test Day 4 Updates Following his hundred in the second innings, Pant now has eight centuries in the longest format. His innings was once again an edge-of-a-seat thriller for all viewers as he danced down the track on his second delivery against Chris to his good fortune, he got an outside edge which flew over slips for a boundary. The southpaw went on to survive two more close chances as a top edge flew towards the fine leg boundary for a four and an inside edge on his pads helped him survive an lbw after that he got in his shell as he was heard saying something to himself on the stump mic and went on to play the rest of the first session without taking any risks. He finally got into his groove in the second session as he brought up his fifty off 82 balls, scoring a flurry of boundaries against Josh further took on Shoaib Bashir, hitting him for two sixes and moved into the 90s in no time. Having been dismissed seven times in the 90s in his career, Pant became a bit circumspect and began dealing in singles. He took 22 deliveries to score his last five runs to complete his hundred and reached the landmark with a single against Shoaib Bashir. Unlike the first innings, Pant had a calm celebration as he didn't attempt his famous back flip and hugged his batting partner KL Rahul.- EndsMust Watch
