On the fifth and final day of the 2nd Test against Test World Champion New Zealand, England produced a spectacular chase at Trent Bridge, as they chased down 299 runs in 72 overs and won by 5 wickets to grab a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Jonny Bairstow's scintillating knock of 92-ball 136 with 14 fours and seven sixes, along with Stokes' 70-ball 75 not out helped England get past the victory line, handing Ben Stokes his second consecutive Test win as new England Test captain.
After impressing in the ICC World Cup 2019 final and the Headingley Test against Australia, both in 2019, Stokes starred in yet another scintillating victory for England.
The newly appointed England captain declared this Trent Bridge win as his greatest, as he struggled to find the right words to describe what happened on Tuesday.
“I’m struggling to find words for what we witnessed out there today, it was just phenomenal. That blows away Headingley, it blows away Lord’s and the World Cup final. Just emotionally and the enjoyment of every minute I had on that field, it was incredible,” Stokes said after the match.
“In the field, it sounds stupid after 150 overs in the dirt but how everybody was just trying to come up with different plans how we were going to change the course of this game to put it back in our hands was just so enjoyable. It was it was just amazing. The whole vibe this week has been awesome. And then to come out and perform the way that we did today," said Stokes.
“I just can’t quite wrap my head around how we’ve chased 299 with 20 overs left on day five of the Test match when we had to bowl 15 overs this morning. That’s never going to happen again. But if it does, it is probably us who are going to do it," the 31-year-old star all-rounder added.
Heaping praises on Johnny Bairstow for his phenomenal knock, Stokes said, “Something we say in the dressing-room - he (Bairstow) had his ‘Jonny eyes’ on today and when he gets those eyes on you know you’re on to something. We were hardly speaking out there to be honest. That was one of the best things I’ve ever seen, to do it in the fourth innings, chasing a big total, game in the balance, to play the way he did once he got past fifty was just mind-blowing. Phenomenal to watch."
The ECB had allowed free entry for the last day's play, and Stokes could not thank the audience enough for the support they exhibited.
“It’ll be hard for people not to enjoy what they’ve witnessed today and everything over the last five days. A lot of credit has to go to Notts for what they did today, allowing free tickets and for people who had already bought tickets to get their money back. Having a full house here at Trent Bridge really does help the atmosphere," he said.
“You can really feel the home crowd and it’ll make the opposition feel the whole world’s on top of them. If we had a half-full stadium today, it wouldn’t have felt how it did out there. It’ll be nice if some other counties take a leaf out of what they did here today, it was really cool to be a player with a full crowd," added Stokes.
(News18 inputs)
