Stokes: It was like a dream where I can’t run faster
BEN STOKES declared himself happy with England’s second Test approach even though they were unable to Bazball their way to another miracle in India. Stokes, who was run out by a direct hit by Shreyas Iyer to end any hopes England had of a victory even more unlikely than in the first Test, had no regrets and instead concentrated on another superb Test full of individual brilliance on both sides. ‘We had full belief in ourselves that we could chase that down,’ said the England captain before his side returned to their training camp in Abu Dhabi with their families for a nine-day break before the third Test in Rajkot.
‘The way we have gone about taking on challenges like that is what we’re about. The way we applied ourselves and put India under pressure was great but unfortunately we didn’t end up on the right side of the result.
‘We’re a level-headed team and that allows us to put this behind us and move on to the next Test.
‘We were pretty level last week even though we had achieved something special and even though we’ve lost we’re very upbeat and very high about some of the great stuff we’ve been able to do.’ Stokes hailed the performances of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah from India and Zak Crawley — given out on review yesterday much to the captain’s surprise — Ben Foakes, Jimmy Anderson and his young spin attack for providing the ‘cricket I want to watch as a fan’. But he admitted that did not include his own run-out which came with England 179 runs from chasing what would have been a record-breaking 399 and still just about dreaming of a Hyderabad-like miracle. ‘It was like I was in a dream where you try to run faster but you can’t,’ said Stokes. ‘It was a bizarre couple of seconds. You’d think by now, at 32, I’d have learned not to do that. It’s not the first time I’ve been run out like that and done something stupid. ‘I always seem to do something that’s a talking point whether good or bad.’ Stokes said Ollie Pope, Foakes and Tom Hartley, along with the injured Jack Leach, had all been suffering from sickness going into the fourth day. But Joe Root, who has a sore little finger, should be fully fit for Rajkot.