England captain says emphatic victory at Trent Bridge shows the progression of his side
Andrew Miller21-Jul-2024Ben Stokes, England’s captain, praised Shoaib Bashir for “showing the world what he’s about today”, after his five-wicket haul rushed West Indies to a 241-run defeat on the fourth afternoon at Trent Bridge.Bashir, 20, finished with figures of 5 for 41 for 11.1 overs as West Indies – chasing an unlikely 385 to square the series – collapsed from a comfortable 61 for 0 shortly after tea to be bowled out for 143.Though he only made his debut in February on England’s tour of India, this was Bashir’s third five-wicket haul in five Tests, and his first on home soil – surpassing the recently retired James Anderson as the youngest England bowler to achieve such a feat.”Wow… special stat,” Bashir said on Sky Sports shortly after wrapping up the victory, adding that he was still trying to “comprehend what just happened”. It was left to Stokes to truly sing the praises of a young offspinner who didn’t bowl a single over in last week’s first-Test win at Lord’s, but stepped up to the challenge exactly when his captain needed him.”Bash showed the world what he’s about today, on a wicket that wasn’t necessarily offering too much for spin throughout the whole game,” Stokes said at the post-match presentation. “The ability he had to be able to change his pace, change his line, and manipulate how he wanted the ball to react out of the surface was top-class.”It was a far from a one-man effort on the final day, however, and Stokes was especially pleased with the range of contributors to England’s victory. Although Ollie Pope was named Player of the Match for his first-innings hundred, he signalled out the second-innings stand between Joe Root and Harry Brook as the key passage of the contest, under gloomy skies on the third evening, and also warned that “someone will pay” after Mark Wood’s sensationally quick bowling display was rewarded with just two wickets across his 28 overs in the match.”On another day, Woody could have got Man of the Match, the way that he bowled was just phenomenal,” Stokes said. “He’s not got the rewards this game, but someone will pay eventually this summer.”In batting we talk a lot about partnerships, and it’s the same thing with bowling,” Stokes added. “You look at the amount of wickets at the other end when Woody was bowling his spells, that’s the effect that a bowler like Woody can have.Mark Wood cranks up the pace once more for England•Getty Images
“He’s got the heart of a lion, he’ll run in ball after ball after ball for us. And his pace is just phenomenal but it’s the skill that he’s got as well, to be able to consistently hit a certain area, with batters always thinking ‘when is it coming at my head?”Stokes was also full of praise for Chris Woakes, who overcame a fallow display at Lord’s and another off-colour first spell at Trent Bridge to finish with six wickets in the match, including the critical first wicket of Mikyle Louis in the second innings that sparked West Indies’ collapse. Woakes had endured a disrupted season, impacted by the recent death of his father, but Stokes was delighted that the senior man in his attack had hit his groove.”He really found some rhythm, I thought, in his second spell on day two, and he led the attack so well today,” Stokes said. “Chris Woakes is Mr Dependable, he generally always delivers, but the pressure from external noise about him leading the attack hasn’t affected him, and I think the performance he put in this week showed that.”Shortly after the close, England confirmed an unchanged squad for next week’s third Test at Edgbaston, with the uncapped Dillon Pennington and Matthew Potts once again included alongside the spare batter, Dan Lawrence. And though Stokes would not be drawn on whether Wood in particular might be given a break after his exertions in this Test, he was delighted with the team’s overall direction of travel, as England wrapped up their first series win since the tour of Pakistan in December 2022.”I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the way in which the whole team has performed throughout the Test,” he added. “This week has been great for the progression that this team has made, as a group and also as individuals.”In team sport, you want quite a few individuals to stand up at any given time, but what I hope doesn’t get lost is that partnership last night between Brook and Root,” he added. “I definitely felt that was the toughest batting conditions that we had throughout the Test match, the ball was starting to swing and the way in which that they got through that but also were able to still put pressure on to the West Indies bowling attack was top-class.”Related
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Stokes also name-checked Ben Duckett for his twin scores of 71 and 76, each compiled in a slightly different manner but with the same positive intent flowing through his game.”They had different plans and different fields to him and he changed the way that he played accordingly but still stuck to his strengths,” Stokes said. “He was always looking to put them under pressure, because when Ben Duckett is looking to put the bowlers under pressure, that’s when he plays his best.”England resumed in a strong position on the fourth morning, leading by 207 with seven wickets standing, and though both Brook and Root converted their starts to centuries, West Indies hit back with a flurry of wickets, particularly through Jayden Seales, to keep their target below 400.”We played really well this morning,” Stokes said. “Probably if we’re being brutally honest, we could have got a few a few more runs in the first innings, and would have liked to have gotten a few more [today]… but with the pressure of the fourth innings, 380 is a lot of runs.”Joe was Joe… a fantastic knock, another hundred for Joe in a winning cause for England, then Brookie went out and just played the house down.”
