KOLKATA: So long then, England. It was fun knowing this side of you. The highs were exhilarating. But you can't always rely on Ben Stokes to deliver. Twice in 2019during the World Cup final, and then in the Ashes Test at Headingley-Stokes was infallible, a oneman answer to the most skewed asks in modern cricket. On Sunday, he made us wonder if he was redefining greatness. Which itself is an achievement, for in a life- time of cricket memories only very few men find such immortality-VVS Laxman, Brian Lara, Kusal Perera and AB de Villiers perhaps. But Stokes was on the verge of achieving it the third time.
Don't let any of that cloud the reality though. Australia are now 2-0 up in the Ashes because they refused to blink first in both Tests. In Edgbaston, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon had braved an English assault. But at Lord's, they ran into Stokes and his legend, without Lyon and on a pitch that didn't offer much.
Stokes feeds off dire situations, his instincts inevitably sharpened by the improbability of a victory. Memories of Headingley ran high but unlike in 2019, where Jonny Bairstow added 86 for the fifth wicket with Stokes, here Bairstow's contribution was cut short by a freak stumping that England may not agree with.
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