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Cricket Players'If you wanted a century…': What Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer told Ravindra Jadeja as England 'make a mockery of the game'
Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja's conversation was picked up by the stump mic as the 4th Test between India and England ended on a 'sour note'.
In an extremely poor show of sportsmanship, a frustrated England offered to call off the Manchester Test with more than an hour left for the match to finish. With Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar spoiling England's plans of finishing India off and taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, Stokes and his team stooped to a new low. They were left disgruntled when India refused to take the draw and wanted to carry on with the match.
It was a shame that a competitive 4th Test of the series for the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy had to finish on a sour note. Both teams agreed to a draw after Jadeja and Sundar smashed centuries, but the damage was already done. What made things even more unsportsmanlike was that Stokes ensured his part-time bowlers Joe Root and Harry Brook sent down dollies to gift runs to Jadeja and Sundar to complete their respective milestones. They didn't applaud, and if anything, as Sanjay Manjrekar said on commentary, 'England were grumpy'. In the end, it was nothing more than frustration by a team that is used to dominating.
The drama began when Stokes approached Jadeja to shake hands, hoping that his Indian all-rounder compatriot would agree. That didn’t happen, and it ticked off Stokes. When the umpires were not in favour of it either, Stokes was unimpressed and engaged in a verbal exchange with Jadeja. It was basically two men against an entire team as the entire England team started firing verbal shots at Sundar and Jadeja.
There was more drama
Jadeja remained unperturbed as the drama unfolded. Even Shubman Gill was disgusted as he watched from the change room. When the broadcast replayed the footage, it became clearer what Stokes told Jadeja: "You want to score a Test century against Harry Brook?" When Jadeja replied, " It's not in my hands," Zak Crawley interfered, saying, "Then shake hands. It's embarrassing."
Watch the entire incident below:
The stump mic also captured Jofra Archer telling Jadeja, "If you wanted to score a century, you should have batted like you wanted to get it."
Manjrekar aptly summed up England's cheap tactics. "Now they are just making a mockery of the game."
Truly disgusting.
India secure historic draw
After winning their first-ever Test match at Edgbaston not too long ago, India are the happier team coming out of Manchester and heading into London for the fifth and final Test of the series to be played at The Oval starting June 31. After conceding 669 to England, India were in danger of folding quickly again when they were reduced to 0/2 in the second innings. Chris Woakes dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal for zero, followed by a golden duck for Sai Sudharsan. But what transpired from that point onward was nothing short of exceptional and enough to bring back memories of India's famous heist against Australia in Sydney in January of 2020, if not the famous Eden Gardens Test from 2001.
KL Rahul and Gill, two of the most in-form Indian batters, added a dogged 188-run partnership for the third wicket, playing out two wicketless sessions on Day 4. On Day 5, the country hopes for both to produce a repeat of the iconic triple-century partnership between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in Kolkata, and while that did not happen – Rahul was dismissed for 90 and Gill for 103 – Jadeja and Sundar denied England a win and helped India with a narrow escape. Like Rahul and Gill, Jadeja and Sundar played out two wicketless sessions, forging a stand of 203 runs to keep the series alive. The end result may be a draw, but India will take it as nothing short of a win, which promises to give them the edge heading into the Oval Test starting in three days' time.
