England skipper Ben Stokes admitted 2-2 is a fair scoreline after the Anderson-Tendulkar series against India was fought tooth and nail between the two teams. India won the fifth Test at the Oval by six runs to draw the series emphatically.
England needed 35 runs to win with four wickets in hand on the final day but Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna delivered for the visitors. While Siraj bagged the remaining three wickets, Krishna dismissed Josh Tongue.
Stokes said after the loss, “I think the series as a whole, even before this game, it was just all four games going to five days, this one again, and it’s been toe-to-toe for 25 days, two very good teams who have thrown everything at each other, left nothing out there, so I guess from a cricket fan’s point of view, 2-2 is probably fair, obviously we’re disappointed now to have not got the result that we wanted to give us a series win, so there’s obviously that disappointment, a little bit of frustration there as well from everyone.”
Stokes noted that such a humdinger series between England and India was a perfect advertisement for Test cricket.
The England all-rounder added, “But yeah, I think as a massive advocate of this format and Test Cricket as a whole, this has certainly been one of those series that can hopefully keep that narrative around Test Cricket is dying, so yeah, disappointed from obviously a playing point of view, but as an advocate of the game, the series has been fantastic to be part of.”
Meanwhile, Harry Brook scored an attacking knock of 111 runs off 98 balls but the impetus shifted on the fourth day after his dismissal. Brook had also received a life when Mohammed Siraj made a huge error at the boundary rope when the batter was on 19.
Stokes added, “Obviously 380 (374) was a very large total to try and chase down, but as the game got deeper and deeper, the way that the wicket was playing completely changed from Day 1 and Day 2, so we knew that if any of our lads were to get in, then that was going to give us a good chance. Harry got us into that position by playing in a particular way, putting the Indian bowlers under immense pressure to take them away from being able to consistently bowl the areas that they wanted to bowl.
Stokes was able to lead from the front as he scalped 17 wickets in four Test matches against India at an average of 25.24.
