Our Bureau
London
After the heartbreak of Lord’s and being on the brink of losing the 4th Test and with that the series, India has shown the grit and fight like no one else and have managed to draw the Manchester Test. Not only did the Indian batters show their resilience and saved the match but they made the home side sick of trying to break them as they clearly were willing to shake hands and end the match before the day was over.
The match had multiple heroes from both sides throughout the different courses with players stepping up. Ben Stokes, the England Team captain, was awarded the Player of the Match for his stellar numbers with both bat and ball. Stokes bowled his heart out in the first innings and took a five wicket haul and as it has been throughout the series he was the best bowler for the England side.
He also showed up with the bat scoring 141 runs while battling through cramps even leaving the field for some time during his innings. And when India’s KL Rahul and Shubman Gill were battling it out in the middle and England’s bowling attack had no answer for them their captain stepped up again dismissing Rahul at the start of the first session of the last day.
However, Indian batters refused to let go of the match and showed incredible resilience and spirit as they battled through adversity and saved the match which at one point was swaying in England’s favor. When India came out to bat, they lost two wickets in the first over to Chris Woakes without even tickling the scoreboard.
Then the Indian Captain walked out to bat and alongside KL Rahul stitched up a gritty partnership of 188 runs. At the start of Day 5, Rahul was dismissed just 10 runs short of a well deserved century by Stokes but Gill continued smashing the fourth hundred of the series, becoming the first captain to score four hundreds in their debut series (in away tests).
Gill was dismissed shortly after his hundred and it looked like India was in deep trouble and a collapse there would’ve been fatal for them. But their two all-rounders stuck in and batted their hearts out for the next 56 overs as they both smashed centuries and made sure that India didn’t lose the match and gave the team a chance to save the series in the next match.
