Ben Stokes does many things the hard way and, once again, it paid off. England edged India by 22 runs on the final afternoon at Lord’s to move 2-1 up in the five-match series, the captain dragging a tiring attack over the line with 24 overs of wholehearted, short-of-perfect fast bowling.
Key facts first: India, set 312, were 289 all out shortly before tea; Stokes finished with 3 for 71 in the innings and 5 for 123 in the match; Jofra Archer, on his Test return after four years, chipped in with 5 for 105 overall; England now have an eight-day break before the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.
Stokes had already spoken of feeling “cooked” after 26 overs at Edgbaston last week, yet Lord’s asked for more. Head coach Brendon McCullum tried to cap him at seven on the third evening, mindful of last winter’s hamstring surgery. The captain ignored the hint, returning on Monday for another nine-plus overs in the morning and a ten-over burst after lunch that finally winkled out Jasprit Bumrah.
“I have taken myself to some pretty dark places before. Today was… but look, bowling to win a Test match, if that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what does,” he told Sky Sports.
He conceded that Saturday’s stint felt different: “With what today was, what was on the line. Yesterday [Saturday] was a bit different. You know, there was still more cricket to be played. And, you know, pulled myself off there. I mean, to be honest, I was absolutely cooked [on day three] as well. But again, today, you know, game was on the line. Nothing was stopping me [carrying on].”
Dark places or not, it was Stokes’ yorker that burst through KL Rahul’s forward press, setting India back at 134 for 4. From there they never quite caught up, although Ravindra Jadeja’s flinty 64 and a 35-run ninth-wicket stand with Bumrah forced England to keep sweating.
With the bat, Stokes remains stuck in middling form – 44 and 33 here mean it is ten Test innings without a fifty – yet he refuses to dwell. “I’m an allrounder. I get four opportunities in a Test match to be able to influence the game. And one of the great things about being an allrounder is that if one thing doesn’t quite click, you’ve got an opportunity with the other. And that’s how I look at it.”
“Obviously, I would like to be scoring more runs at the moment, but as soon as I’ve got my whites on out there on the field, all my thoughts flip over to bowling. And that’s the great thing about being an allrounder, is that you don’t really have a chance to sort of worry about anything. And everyone knows, I’ll always put in as much as I possibly can.”
Archer’s part in the win should not be understated. He removed Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in the new-ball burst that opened India’s chase and later forced Pant into a miscued pull, the wicket Stokes celebrated with a sprint from mid-off that left him gasping. The pace was not quite 2019-level lightning, but rhythm, bounce and that familiar effortless snap were back. “We’ve missed him,” Stokes said afterwards, simple as that.
England’s selectors now face the familiar Stokes conundrum: rein in the workload or risk burning out their captain-saviour? For the moment, they will revel in a narrow win fashioned by a man who seems happiest when pushing the limits of his own body. Whether that is sustainable across two more Tests this summer – plus white-ball commitments – is another question entirely.
India, meanwhile, have issues of their own. Jadeja fought, Rahul looked composed for 71, yet a middle-order collapse of 4 for 37 on Monday morning left too much to do. Their seamers had impressed earlier – Bumrah’s 6 for 92 was his best outside Asia – and the visitors will feel a 2-1 deficit flatters England. Trent Bridge, historically friendly to swing and seam, arrives soon enough.
For now, though, Lord’s was Stokes’ stage once more: aching hamstring, dark places, and a small gold medal for Player of the Match tucked into his kitbag. Imperfect yet irresistible.
