Captain Ben Stokes scolded pacer Joffra ArcherImage Credit source: Getty Images
In the Nottingham Test match between England and New Zealand, an action of fast bowler Joffra Archer surprised everyone. On the second day of this test match, when a wicket fell in New Zealand’s first innings, the entire England team started celebrating but star pacer Archer stayed away from the celebration and remained standing at the boundary. This behavior of Archer infuriated the team captain Ben Stokes, who angrily reprimanded Archer in front of everyone on the middle ground and asked him to join the team celebration. But why did Archer do this?
New Zealand’s first innings ended on the second day of the last Test match of the series at Trent Bridge. But before the Kiwi team’s 10th wicket fell, a small drama happened, which surprised the England players, fans and commentators. Kiwi batsman Nathan Smith was out on the ball of England spinner Shoaib Bashir. Bashir himself gave the eighth blow to New Zealand by catching a fast shot on his own ball and took his first wicket.
Now if the wicket fell then it was natural that the entire team would celebrate it. This is what happened and all the England players including Captain Stokes celebrated the wicket by surrounding Bashir. Only Joffra Archer did not become a part of this celebration and when Stokes saw this, he got furious. He called out from the middle of the field to Archer, who was standing near the boundary, and expressed his anger and signaled him to come with the team. The effect of Stokes’ anger was that Archer had to give up his stubbornness and join the team.
Stokes then shook hands with him and Archer was seen offering some clarification. But the question is why did Archer do this? So the answer is Shoaib Bashir. In fact, it was Archer who was bowling the last over just before this wicket of Bashir. A catch bounced off his ball, which went towards Shoaib Bashir but the English spinner dropped it, due to which Archer was very upset. His same anger came out in the next over, when he did not come to celebrate Bashir’s success. Ultimately, on Stokes’ insistence, he shook hands with the spinner and the matter was calmed down, but by then its video had gone viral on social media and Archer had to face a lot of rebuke.
