Stokes leads England to an era defining win in Rawalpindi
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 5.
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi, Day 5.
England 657 and 264–7 declared. Pakistan 579 and 268.
England win by 74 runs.
“We’ve achieved something very special this week” so said England captain Ben Stokes in his immediate after match television interview following a quite incredible game of Test Match cricket that his captaincy is redefining as a spectacle let alone a historic sport. In league with England coach Brendon McCullum, it’s not grandiose to suggest they’re attempting to redefine, revolutionise and reinvent the grand old game and very much in their own image.
I’ve watched Test Match cricket my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.
I watch England tours rather more avidly than their domestic tussles with overseas visitors unless it’s the auld enemy and our cricketing friends from Australia. I just adore that rebellious feeling of watching live sport from a faraway land of sunshine whilst I’m wrapped against an English mid-winter in a duvet, in the dark, and with a freshly made cup of tea. I have that childish feeling that I’m the only person in the entirety of this small island in the middle of winter watching cricket from a sweltering dustbowl in the middle of Sri Lanka. It tweaks the contrarian in me. To look forward to rising at 2am and through sleep deprived eyes, actually believe them and that they are not in fact lying to me. Yes it’s a misty, wet, unwelcoming cold England outside yet armed with a brew and the thoughts of the wonderful people who introduced me to the greatest sport in the world, the sun is setting in Sydney, and Darren Gough is taking a hat-trick against the Australians.
I’ve watched Test Match cricket my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.
The memory fades a little these days and after a long night watching yet another day of extraordinary Test Match cricket I hope you’ll forgive me for not checking my own facts, but I swear them to be true. I’ve stayed up all night watching that rascal Danny Morrison batting for New Zealand and frustrating a poor England team to a frustrating draw. Botham, Gatting, Athey, Dilley, and the rest of the class of a glorious Ashes summer of 1987 as well as their more contemporary classmates of 2011, Strauss, Cook, Anderson and a father and son named Broad who can both boast that they each won the cricketing Ashes down under. The cancelled Test Match in the West Indies when the wicket was considered lethally dangerous! The frustration of umpteen nights warding off sleep as the rain continued to fall not here in a cold, dark England but unseasonably in Perth, Lahore or Wellington. I’ve bemused girlfriends into utter frustration, handed my dear old Mum a handwritten scorecard detailing the events of the previous night, slept my way through a non-descript work meeting and shooed parents and family alike to bed early on Christmas Night, because all I want to do is sit beside a roaring fire and watch the Boxing Day Test Match from Melbourne.
I’ve watched Test Match cricket my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.
I admire Ben Stokes for non-sporting reasons as I do another of England’s current totemic sportsmen, Tyson Fury. Both men have been incredibly frank and open with their struggles with mental health, incredibly frank. One continues to be the Heavyweight Champion of the World with the giant presence of a taller George Foreman and the hand speed and movement of Muhammad Ali. The other is a 31 year old leader of men recovering from the loss of his father as well as recovering from the darkest of human places. For that alone, I greatly admire Ben Stokes.
But returning to matters of sport, I felt his appointment as England captain to be a wrong one! Sure they needed a new coach and cricketing approach following the horrible recent debacles in Australia and the West Indies. But I argued, wrongly, that Joe Root was needed as captain if only to keep the ship from sinking. McCullum and Stokes have not only righted the ship, they’ve collectively set the course for a completely reinvented and redefined game. Stokes constantly emphasises that both he and McCullum want their players to express their talents and attack the game and the situation. He is prepared to lose a game in order to win it. To not be passive but expressive and most of all, joyful. Enjoy the moment, to keep that childish spirit of sporting adventure alive. Stokes has no need for tame and lame draws and the real reason why I’d posit is because he damn well wants to play an exciting game of a sport he cares passionately about, and he wants to damn well win in the process. The Stokes/McCullum approach is to openly redefine the game and make it sportingly relevant as well as fresh and exciting for the watching audience. Above and beyond all the technical and tactical sporting bluster I reckon they’re both a couple of cricket crazy kids, and I can’t help but admire them for stamping their mark on the continuing history of this great and magical game.
I’d also argue that Stokes and McCullum are also setting down a marker for their approach to the next Ashes series with Australia but we don’t have time here for yet another rambling tangent, we have a 5th and final day of a Test Match to enthuse over. Here’s why today, and today alone and not the other four historic and record breaking days of Test Match cricket that came before it, here’s why this grand old game is so precious and the best in the sporting world.
The equation at the start of the day was simple:
Pakistan needed a further 263 runs for victory.
England needed 7 wickets to secure only their 3rd all time win in Pakistan.
In a tense opening session as the Pindi Cricket Stadium began to fill to an eventual near capacity crowd, Pakistan scored 89 runs for the loss of only one wicket, that of the dangerous Mohammad Rizwan for a patient and methodical 46. James Anderson, in the cricketing vernacular, “strangled” the batsman into a loose shot on the leg side, gifting an easy catch to emergency wicketkeeper Ollie Pope. Despite the loss of this crucial wicket, the Test Match was perfectly poised and even more so when, with beautifully chaotic cricketing symmetry, Pakistan then scored a further 88 runs in the second session and again, only for the loss of yet another crucial single wicket. This time it was Saud Shakeel for a very well made 76 in his partnership with the recently dismissed Rizwan and at the Tea Break ahead of the third and final session of the day, the revision of our sporting equation dictated that Pakistan now needed a further 86 runs for a quite unbelievable victory and comeback from adversity, or England needed an improbable 5 further quick wickets against a rapidly setting Pakistani sun that had only set on two previous victories for the ghosts of their cricketing teams of the past.
On the cusp of the Tea Break, Agha Salman received a cricketing “life” when he appeared to be out LBW (Leg Before Wicket) before the DRS review system incredulously saved him whilst batting partner Azhar Ali was batting through the pain of a suspected broken finger. Their partnership was strong and unbroken at the break ahead of the final session of play, and a session in which their team needed a further 86 runs for victory.
Here’s the scorecard for the final session of the day:
10.27am AGHA SALMAN lbw bowled Robinson (30).
Just a few scoreless minutes into the final session sees Ollie Robinson trapping the dangerous Salman leg before wicket for 30. Reviewed on DRS, the replay showed the batsman clearly out and for perhaps for the first time in 4 days and 2 sessions of cricket, all four results were no longer possible, and only an England win or draw were now probable.
10.38am AZHAR ALI caught Root bowled Robinson (40).
Ali’s broken fingered resistance comes to an end via the intuitive captaincy of Stokes and the brilliant instinctive catch of his great mate and ex England captain Joe Root at leg slip. Ali edged a fine, sharp chance to Root who grasped it safely before celebrating wildly. This was a key wicket, and England were now deep in the Pakistani batting “tail”.
11.01am ZAHID MAHMOOD caught Pope bowled Anderson (1).
Stand in wicketkeeper Ollie Pope dropped a sharp leg side chance earlier in the day but not here, springing football style to his left to grasp a wonderful one handed catch that gave England’s evergreen legendary bowler his third wicket of the innings. Just two balls later, he’d snag his fourth.
11.03am HARIS RAUF lbw bowled Anderson (0).
Brilliant fast medium and nagging accurate bowling from England’s all time record wicket taker trapped the new batsman in front of his stumps, and England were on the cusp of a famous victory.
With one wicket left to snag and during this somewhat countdown to a historic victory, over half an hour passed as Pakistan batsmen Naseem Shah and Mohammad Ali gamely repelled everything thrown at them. Ex England captain Nasser Hussain, and last winning captain on Pakistani soil in the almost now mythical darkness of Karachi in 2000, repeatedly intoned that “another couple of minutes have ticked by”, no doubt recalling having similar thoughts over two decades ago before, with time and local light literally running out:
11.37am NASEEM SHAH lbw bowled Leach (6).
The teenage fast bowler’s wicket led a charmed life as the first ball he received from a pumped up Ollie Robinson inexplicably brushed his off stump, deviating away at quite an angle and yet, no bails were dislodged. Next, and many tense minutes later, he edged a clean catching chance that flew between wicketkeeper Ollie Pope and Joe Root at 1st slip. They looked at each other incredulously, each expecting the other to grasp the match winning catch. But Stokes called upon his “Mad Professor” one last time and with a brand new ball, Leach sneaked a slightly quicker delivery past Shah’s bat and crashing into his pads and the game was over and a quite remarkable, history making victory was won.
Ollie Robinson was named “Man of the Match” for his last day bowling heroics but the award should have gone to the batting skills and youthful endeavour of Harry Brook who in only his second ever Test Match is already being talked about in the same breath as Ollie Pope as a mainstay of the England starting XI with the unabashed backing of his captain. Ben Duckett returned from a six year stint in the international wilderness with a century, Will Jacks debuted with runs and six 1st innings wickets, Jack Leach remains this team’s number one spin bowler, Ollie Robinson (oft pilloried by me for being unfit and almost aloof and disinterested) looks fitter, hungrier and stronger of bodily frame, and James “Jimmy” Anderson is still snagging vital wickets for minimal runs at the ripe old age of 40 and was visibly moved at the significance of this victory even at his esteemed legendary status in this grand old sport.
And then there’s captain Ben Stokes, he of the quizzical and disbelieving look as he can’t believe a DRS decision has gone against his team, his England cap as askew as his no doubted scrambled mind at the time. Minutes later, and after bowling his heart out for the team he leads as he desperately sought a vital breakthrough wicket in today’s final session, Stokes is bent over, utterly and thoroughly exhausted with very little left to give in a game his decision making and desires to play without fear or seeking a stale draw ensured a packed stadium and a rapt audience across the cricketing world watching an entirely revolutionised brand of cricket.
Stokes and his team have indeed created something very special this week and all against a backdrop of illness and injury ravaging the squad. I have watched Test Match cricket all of my life and I have never seen the likes of this before.
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are re-writing the rules of the grand old game, and the history of cricket will be thankful for their immense love for the greatest sport in the world.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to dance amongst the madness of my archives, or revisit all four previous days in this astonishing Test Match here:
Record tumble in Rawalpindi as England put Pakistan to the sword
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 1.medium.com
Pakistan fight back in a slowly developing stalemate in Rawalpindi
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 2.medium.com
Babar Azam with a majestic century but England end Day 3 on top
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 3.medium.com
Another extraordinary day’s Test Match cricket sets up a final day shoot-out in Rawalpindi
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 4.medium.com