England skipper Ben Stokes was proud of his team, especially of young spinners – Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley, after they lost the fourth Test match by five wickets against India at Ranchi on Monday, and with it, the hosts have taken an impregnable lead of 3-1 in the series. With this win, India extended their consecutive series win to 17 while playing at home.
England were in the driver’s seat as they had India at 177-7 in the first innings on the second day after posting 353 runs on the board. But the hosts were able to bounce back after Dhruv Jurel scored a scintillating knock of 90 runs.
Meanwhile, Shoaib Bashir bagged his maiden five-wicket haul in Test matches as he returned with figures of 5-119 in the first innings. The off-spinner took three more wickets in the second essay as he had 3-79. Furthermore, Tom Hartley continued to impress as the left-arm orthodox spinner bagged four wickets in the match.
But England were skittled out for a paltry score of 145 runs in the second innings and it was the turning point in the game.
Ben Stokes said in the post-match presentation, “I think it was a great Test match. If you see the scoreboard, it’ll say India won by 5 wickets, but it doesn’t give credit to the way things unfolded, the ebbs and flows on every single day it happened. I can only be proud of my team, we ‘ve had some inexperienced spinners (Bashir and Hartley), but I’m proud of their efforts, they came here without a lot of exposure and the way they kept bowling, I can’t ask for anything more. Part of my captaincy is allowing the young guys to revel and the freedom to play in some difficult and intimidating conditions in India.”
Stokes also showered praise on England’s veteran batter Joe Root, who scored a fantastic knock of 122 runs to silence his critics in style after coming under the scanner for his shot-selection. Moreover, the England skipper continued to laud young Shoaib Bashir for having a fantastic Test.
Stokes added, “I don’t think the criticism of Joe Root has been fair, the sheer amount of cricket he’s played, got 12,000 Test runs. He’s incredible. So is Bashir, what a story, what a journey, taking 8 wickets including a 5-fer against India after having hardly played a lot of cricket is superb.”
Stokes was happy with the effort his players put through the course of the Test match. He concluded, “You want to win series, you want to play and win cricket matches. I’ve been here for a couple of years (as captain) and my message is simple. The only thing I can say is we left nothing on the field, we’ve fought hard and I’m happy with that.”
The fifth and final Test match will be played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala from March 7.
