New Delhi: Though a 2-2 drawn series with India is a great advert for Test cricket, it left England skipper Ben Stokes rue a missed opportunity.
Going into the fifth Test at the Oval, England led 2-1 and were poised to win it as they needed 35 runs with four wicket in and in the final day.
But a spirited India, led by player of the match Mohammed Siraj’s five wickets and Prasidh Krishna’s four scalps, took the remaining four English wickets within an hour of the morning session for a famous win
Stokes had to watch England’s failure from the sidelines due to a shoulder injury and had to be frustrated at his team’s inability to pull through from a position of strength.
“I think the series as a whole even before this game, it was just all four games going to five days. This one again. It’s been toe to toe pretty for 25 days. You know, two teams, two very good teams who have thrown everything at each other. Left nothing out there,” Stokes said.
“From a cricket fan’s point of view 2-2 is probably fair. Obviously, we’re disappointed now to have not got the result that we wanted to give us a series win, there’s obviously that disappointment and a little bit of frustration there as well from everyone.”
Great advert
Stokes however was glad that the fierce competition led to a “fantastic” advertisement of Test cricket.
“But as a massive advocate of this format and Test cricket as a whole, this has certainly been one of those series that could hopefully keep off that narrative around Test cricket is dying. As an advocate of the game the series has been fantastic to be part of,” he said.
Joe Root and Harry Brook both scored centurions in the second innings to raise England’s hopes of a win, which made them hopeful, Stokes mentioned.
“Yeah 380 is obviously a very large total to try and chase down but as the game got deeper and deeper, the way that the wicket was playing completely changed from day one and day two,” Stokes added.
“So we knew that if any of our lads were to get in it was going to give us a good chance. Harry got us into that position by playing a particular way, putting the Indian bowlers under the immense pressure to take them away from being able to consistently bowl the areas that they wanted to bowl.
“I’m sure everyone was applauding him when he bought up his 100 in the way that he did. Some of the shots he played were unbelievable. So, yeah, the dismissal and the way that he got out was a shot that we seen a lot of him do in that innings, which I’m sure was getting a lot of praise.”