Having made the body blow to India's only last chance at victory by taking the wicket of Virat Kohli in his very first over on Day 4, all-rounder Ben Stokes said that it was young Sam Curran's counter-attacking 63-run knock in the second innings that allowed England to push their score to a stiff looking target of 194 and laid the foundation to home side's victory.

Praising Curran's knock as the turning point of the game, Stokes talking to Sky Sports was quoted saying, “I thought we are a bit behind with the lead but Sam Curran took them out of play, the way that he played at such a young age, that was the big turning point of this test match. It’s great to be a part of this game, but I dunno…I don’t know what to be feeling right now.”

Complementing the Indian Captain Virat Kohli's brilliant efforts with the bat in both innings and singlehandedly bringing the fight to the contest, he further said, “Throughout the whole innings…Kohli played a brilliant knock in the first innings, but with the ball swinging he was trying to move across to play for that inswinger but actually the one that I was trying to swing away, he may be leaned over and missed one for a change. Moments like that change the game in these tight ones. I’m proud to be part of this group, playing for England means so much, and it’s a great start to this tough five-match series. And being 1-0 up we’re in the box seat at the moment.”

Stokes concluded by saying, “We weren’t quite sure what to expect here. Knew we needed five wickets and we had all the confidence, These games are brilliant. We’ve copped a lot of stick as a team recently and beating a team like India there will close a few months,"

“Winning those tight games, you can’t underestimate what it gives teams for confidence. We’ve got a five-Test match series here, so we’ll take all the confidence we can. No better way to start it off than that,” 

The second game of the series begins at Lord's on Thursday, August 9. 

(Inputs from Indian Express)