Debate between Ben Stokes and Ravindra JadejaImage Credit Source: Getty Images
England cricket, current and former, cricket media and fans often talk big about sportsmanship. Especially whenever the opposing team plays following the laws of cricket and England is suffering losses, the debate of ‘sportsmanship’ or ‘Spirit of Cricket’ is often started. But in the Manchester Test against Team India, England captain Ben Stokes himself stumbled all the common sportsmanship and made his own stimulation.
The fourth match of the Test series between India and England in Old Trafford ended on an exciting draw. In this match, England was seen in a state of victory by the first session of the fourth day. He had taken a lead of 311 runs over Team India and also took 2 wickets on the score of 0. But first captain Shubman Gill and KL Rahul’s 188 -run partnership pushed him on the backfoot.
Stokes did such an act, happened
But the real drama took place on the last day when England got the smell of victory but Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar destroyed her aspirations. Both batted in the last two sessions and finished the match on a draw by making an unbeaten 203 -run partnership. But during this time the action of Ben Stokes and the rest of England players shocked everyone. When the game of 15-16 overs was left in the end of the match, suddenly Stokes proposed to agree to the draw with Jadeja and Sundar.
But Jadeja and Sundar rejected their proposal and this is where Stokes’s thumb-thu-thu started. In fact, when Stokes spoke of a draw, both Indian batsmen were close to a century. Jadeja was on 89 and Sundar 80 runs. Meanwhile, Stokes had an argument with Jadeja and Stokes started questioning whether he wanted to hit a century against part time bowlers like Brook and Docket? To this, Jadeja also replied why he should go out? Jadeja had expressed intentions that he would complete his centuries and both Indian batsmen did so. While Jadeja scored his fifth century, Sundar scored a century in Test cricket for the first time. With Sundar’s century, the match ended on the draw.
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Stokes made excuse, Gambhir replied
After the match, when Team India captain Shubman Gill was asked about this, he clearly said that the team wanted both the players to complete the century. On the question of not persuading the draw, he said, “This was his (Jadeja-Sundar’s) decision but both of them batted well and reached 90 runs. So he was entitled to a century.”
At the same time, when he was questioned by England captain Stokes, he made an excuse for the fitness of the bowlers. The English captain said, “At that time the same result (draw) was clean and I did not want to endanger my fast bowlers. His body was very tired, so I did not want to put my major bowlers in trouble.”
But the head coach of the Indian team Gautam Gambhir did not like this attitude of Stokes and he gave a befitting reply in the press conference. Gambhir said, “If any England batsman had been playing for 90 runs, would they have agreed to the draw. Was he not entitled to a (Jadeja and beautiful) century?”
