England captain Ben Stokes cleared the air regarding what happened in the final few minutes of the Manchester Test, where he exchanged some words with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. The fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy ended in a draw; however, the final few minutes witnessed some intense drama as Stokes and England did not take kindly to India’s refusal to call the game off early.
It all started with Ben Stokes approaching the on-field umpires, Rod Tucker and Ahsan Raza, and the two batters, Sundar and Jadeja, to call the game off. There was only one possible result, a draw. However, the two Indian batters refused as they were close to their respective centuries.
This led to Stokes asking Jadeja, “You want to get a hundred against Harry Brook?” The England captain took the specialist bowlers out of the attack, and the rest of the game saw bowling from Brook and Joe Root.
The two batters brought up their tons and eventually, both teams shook hands, and the Manchester Test ended in a draw.
Speaking after the contest was over, Ben Stokes explained his decision to approach Jadeja and Sundar, saying he didn’t want to over-bowl his bowlers when the game was over.
“I think all the hard work was done by India; they both played incredibly well. I got to that point where there was obviously only one result, and there was absolutely no chance I was going to risk any of my big fast bowlers through injuries with one more game to go,” Stokes said during the post-match presentation.
“Liam Dawson has just bowled so many overs this game. His body started to get a little bit tired and started to cramp up in the legs, so I wasn’t risking any of my front-line bowlers for that last half an hour,” he added.
