Ben Stokes concedes higher facet received Check sequence

India beat England by 5 wickets within the fourth Check in Ranchi to clinch the five-match sequence 3-1. It was a whole turnaround for England after they’d fought again brilliantly to win the primary Check in Hyderabad by 28 runs. They’d their moments in Ranchi as effectively, the place they held the higher hand after two days, however couldn’t capitalize on the benefit.

With the sequence loss to India, England suffered their first Check sequence defeat within the Bazball period. Admitting that the outcomes have been disappointing, Stokes gave credit score to India, particularly the spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. He additionally rued England not taking their possibilities after they have been forward within the recreation.

“It is all the time disappointing being on the shedding staff. Trying again at once we had our probability to bat yesterday, cricket is all the time ability in opposition to ability. Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep and the circumstances we discovered ourselves in in opposition to them was very, very difficult,” Stokes stated after the loss in Ranchi.

“When India have a sniff in circumstances like that, any staff goes to search out it laborious to not solely maintain the scoreboard ticking however rotate the strike. You have to give them lots of credit score for the best way wherein they bowled in very favorable circumstances. On this event, their ability was higher than ours yesterday,” he added.

England made a couple of eye-grabbing feedback on the Ranchi pitch and its cracks forward of the fourth Check. However Stokes didn’t put down the loss to the floor. The all-rounder commented, “I had no thought what it was going to do and I used to be very stunned the way it saved collectively. The temperatures of the day made it behave in another way however I feel all 4 have been actually good Check match pitches.

“We have seen on many events when it is laborious to get them out, however there will likely be durations when spin is a risk. They’re the circumstances you count on in India. No complaints, simply excellent wickets and 4 video games, 4 outcomes, so cannot complain,” the England captain added.

England have misplaced the Check sequence to India, ending their undefeated run within the Bazball period, their first main setback since Brendon McCullum joined forces with Stokes. Nevertheless, the England skipper was happy with the progress of younger spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir.

“They will have the ability to depart on the finish of this tour with their heads held very excessive. For us as an England staff going ahead, we have extra thrilling expertise which is a superb factor for English cricket,” he asserted.

The fifth and last Check of the India-England sequence begins in Dharamsala on March 7.

–By A Cricket Correspondent