Ben Stokes once again showed how to seize control as England fought their way back into the third Test against India, writes OLIVER HOLT
It was not long before the tea interval. The heat was taking its toll and spectators had begun to bleed out of the Grandstand and the Compton Lower towards the shade of the yellow and white umbrellas of the Veuve Clicquot area on the Nursery Ground and the comforts of the Food Village.
India batted on, steadily, attritionally. A partnership between Ravi Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy that veered between the dogged and the swashbuckling, edged India nearer and nearer to England’s first innings total of 387.
It felt as if the heat was sapping the energy out of everything. Except Ben Stokes.
He ran in from the Pavilion End with the sun burning down on him and jammed a delivery into the pitch that jagged back at Reddy and slammed into the side of his helmet as he turned his head to try to get away from it.
Suddenly, Lord’s was jolted out of its torpor. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as Reddy fell to the floor.
It was clear relatively quickly, thankfully, that Reddy was not badly hurt but the force of the ball had smashed his helmet into his cheek and he needed ice on it and time to recover.
Ben Stokes helped to drag England back into the third Test against India on day three
His superb run out of Rishabh Pant lifted his side’s spirits at a time when England were in danger of being batted out of the game
It was not the first time Stokes had sent a surge of excitement through England’s faltering attempts to dislodge India’s batsmen on Saturday.
When England need a breakthrough, it is so often their captain who provides it and Saturday was another of those days where he shaped events to his will.
Minutes before lunch, with England toiling and Rishabh Pant on the verge of cutting loose, the India wicketkeeper pushed a short ball towards Stokes at cover.
Pant set off for a quick single and Stokes moved quickly to his right, gathered the ball and threw it on the turn.
It was a direct hit, an utterly brilliant piece of fielding. Replays showed Pant was well short of his ground and Stokes’s elated reaction to the dismissal showed just how significant he thought it could be. He took off his hat and high-fived team-mates vigorously as they walked back to the pavilion.
When pickings are slim, Stokes makes things happen. Some have questioned his captaincy during this series and questioned his form, too, but he bowled beautifully on Saturday, with courage and hostility and intelligence.
He can galvanise a team and seize control of a match in a way that only the greats of a sport can. His spirit and the ferocity of his will and the way he transmits them to his team-mates, is worth extra wickets and runs every innings.
If he is struggling a little with the bat, it always feels the height of foolishness to discount him. He has commandeered games too often before not to think he will do it again, and as England restricted India to parity at the end of their first innings, this was his day.
There have been questions surrounding his contributions with the bat but he delivered a fine spell with the ball
He struck Nitish Kumar Reddy in what was a fierce spell of fast bowling on Saturday
His best moment was the delivery he produced to dismiss Reddy 20 minutes after the tea interval.
Stokes managed to get extra bounce on a pitch that was looking increasingly tame and it reared up and hit a startled Reddy on the gloves on its way through to Jamie Smith.
‘I genuinely think Ben Stokes is England’s best bowler, I genuinely do,’ former England spinner Phil Tufnell said.
‘You have to be special to hit Nitish Reddy in the gloves on a pitch like this. And he’s got timely dismissals as well.’
Sir Alastair Cook was similarly effusive. ‘That’s a seriously good ball from Ben Stokes,’ Cook said.
‘He had to play at it, back of the length and it’s kissed the surface, Bumnrah-esque in terms of getting more out of the pitch than anyone else.’
Nor was Stokes finished. He bowled and bowled and bowled. Given his injury history, and his vital importance to the team, there is always a thinly-veiled desire to protect him from himself.
In the end, it took an apparent intervention from the dressing room in the form of a boundary visit from England bowling consultant Tim Southee to suggest to Stokes that he had put his body through enough for the day. With great reluctance, he yielded.
