Ben Stokes battered, bruised but proud as England and India force deciding Test
Ben Stokes praised a showing of “high-quality cricket” between England and India as the fourth Test ended in a draw.
England reached 669 in their first innings before the game fizzled out, with India closing the day on 425 for four.
KL Rahul fell for 90 before Jofra Archer then dismissed Shubman Gill for 103 and Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar both scored tons.
Stokes hailed the quality of the Test, saying: “I thought Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett’s opening partnership was incredibly crucial in the way we could sort of lay the foundations for the game.
“The opening partnership, the way they took the Indian attack on, the rate they were managing to score at it sort of allowed us to go, ‘right we’re going to try and bat once’ and look to hopefully bowl India out.
“It started great yesterday with two wickets in the first over, but it was one of those wickets where if you got in, you felt like you were going to be the one to make the mistake to get out.
“It’s been a back-and-forth series so far, we’ve been throwing punches and India have been throwing punches back at us, it’s just been real high-quality cricket – two very good teams.
“Got to give credit to the way India came out here and performed under the pressure they were.”
Stokes appeared to be troubled by his left leg and a problem in his right shoulder, and admitted he was “pretty sore”.
“It’s been a big five or six weeks,” he said. “I’ll always try and give everything that I possibly can. Try and run through a brick wall.
“I ask the guys up there to run through a brick wall for the team. I’ll always try and do the same to try and lead by example in that sense.
“Bowling, being out in the field all that kind of stuff it is tough work, but pretty sore.”