Drama unfolded during the fourth India versus England Test in Manchester on Sunday (July 27) after Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar rejected Ben Stokes' proposal to settle for a draw an hour ahead of the stipulated time.

At the time, Jadeja was batting on 89, 11 short of his fifth Test century, while Sundar was on 80, 20 away from his maiden Test ton.

India’s decision to carry on batting left the England skipper irked. Stokes walked towards Jadeja and threw verbal jabs, questioning whether he truly wanted to score a Test hundred against Harry Brook.

As it turned out, Stokes actually introduced part-timer Brook into the attack and deployed Joe Root from the other end. Both Jadeja and Sundar capitalised on the soft bowling, racing to their centuries and then deciding to call it off.

After the match, Ben Stokes addressed a press conference, where he explained his decision to offer a draw. The English captain also praised Jadeja and Sundar’s herculean efforts with the bat to save the Manchester Test for India.

"The knock that those two played was very, very good," Stokes told reporters in the post-match presser.

"The situation that India found themselves in there, with us opening the game slightly, that partnership was massive. You hold your hands up, they played incredibly, incredibly well. And I don't think there would've been too much more satisfaction from walking off a hundred not out, getting your team out of a tricky situation, than walking off at 80, 90 not out. That's what you've done for your team. You know, the 10 more runs or whatever it was ain't gonna change the fact that you've managed to get your team out of a very, very, very tricky situation and almost saved your team from a series defeat before the last game."

Stokes also defended his move to toss the bowl to Brook and Root, citing that he wasn't willing to risk his frontline bowlers in the last few overs that were left to be bowled.

"I think we took the game as far as we could with our frontline bowlers to take it as far as we could to think like we've got a real chance of still winning this game. But as soon as it got to that point where it was the draw's inevitable here, I was never going to risk any of my frontline bowlers with the short turnaround that we have and the workload that we've got through this week and throughout the series as well. So yeah, as soon as, you know, the 15 overs or last hour was there, it was always going to be a shake hands."

"As I said, the only other person who's actually got any bowling workload into them is Harry Brook. But I did have to tell him, 'Please don't do anything stupid.' We spent a lot of time out in the field, can't have you pulling aside or doing anything different. Naturally, you'll be fatigued, even if you don't bowl. So I was just like, just get through this period. But yeah, I wasn't going to risk any of my, you know, proper bowling options in that situation when we knew what was going on," he added.

England were left ruing a missed opportunity to secure victory and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, despite holding a huge first innings lead of 311 runs at Old Trafford.

India, meanwhile, will take confidence into the final Test at The Oval in London, starting on July 31. They are currently 1-2 behind in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy but have a golden opportunity to draw the series in the finale.