It was as if the stars aligned for Ben Stokes to bowl that magic ball to his opposite number Rohit Sharma on day two of the fifth Test, feels England assistant coach Jeetan Patel. Right after lunch, England captain bowled a peach of a delivery, his first in competitive cricket in past nine months, to remove Rohit, who had already scored his second hundred of the series. Stokes, who had been bowling only in the nets thus far, finally decided to roll his arm over in a match situation after nothing went England’s way in the morning session. He had stopped bowling owing to a knee injury and had undergone surgery last year.
Bowling the second over of the afternoon session, Stokes produced a peach that seamed away a touch from good length to dislodge Rohit’s off-stump.
“He’s (Stokes) a freak. It was almost written in the stars that he was going to bowl a jaffa first up and get Rohit Sharma out who was on 100. We all know how we can round our attack out, especially in conditions like these where you’ve usually got two spinners, two seamers and then you want your third in Stokesy.
“It was nice to see him back at the crease but we’ve just got to be careful we don’t push him too far, it’s still early days for him. I’m sure he’ll rest up tonight, get some ice on it and see where it fronts tomorrow,” said the former New Zealand spinner.
The dressing room too was amazed at Stokes when he came on to bowl the second over after lunch.
“A little bit of amazement, a little bit written in the stars, a lot of people laughing. It’s quite funny because he came on to bowl when the English crowds are waking up – they’re flicking on the TV and the first thing they see is Ben Stokes bowling a really good delivery to Rohit Sharma.
“It’s so nice to see him back; he’s got better and better with his bowling skills (in the nets) over the tour so that’s a huge positive for us. There’s a lot of cricket to be played this year so it will be nice to have him back at the crease,” said Patel.
Patel was pleased with how off-spinner Shoaib Bashir performed despite dealing with a stomach bug heading into the game. Bashir took four wickets including three in the final session on Friday and was understandably animated with his celebrations.
“That’s the beauty of having unscarred players in the team, that’s a tough day for Bash or anyone playing Test cricket. But he hasn’t had the scars and that’s exciting to have because he bowl the next ball with energy whether it’s gone for four, six, dot, wicket, it doesn’t matter.
“That’s the most pleasing thing, we spoke about it this morning ‘why not just show off, what does it matter? It’s the last Test, you’re not going to play for another six weeks, at least, it’s a great chance to show the world the skills you have got,” said Patel.
England are way behind in the game but Patel and team remain optimistic.
“We’ll have to get these two wickets first. Once we get them, we can work out where the game is at. By the end of tomorrow, we should work out what sort position the game’s in and where we can possibly take it.
“We’re relentlessly positive and we’re going to have use that again tomorrow and the day after that.” The final session belong to England who took five wickets in the phase to reduce India to 473 for 8.
“It was hard day, a grafting day. We thought the wicket might offer a bit more this morning and it didn’t really – maybe the older ball got soft. The boys worked really, really hard and they got their rewards at the end of it,” added Patel.
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