The major decision that Ben Stokes got right at Lord’s yesterday morning was throwing Jofra Archer the ball six years to the day since he closed out the World Cup final.
Stokes himself had to finish off an over at the Nursery End, and he was also the best bowler from that end previously, hitting that eight-metre mark down the pitch that made the ball fly off a length – so one choice was made for him.
With Archer struggling on the fourth evening, however, was he going to give him his favoured end, or go with Brydon Carse, who’d bowled a brilliant late spell on day four to get England back in the game.
With Archer, there would have been two ways to go – keep him waiting and fire him up, making him want to come on and prove a point, or put the arm around him, remind him he’d been out of the game for a long time, but you’re backing him.
Crucially, Stokes chose the arm round the shoulder treatment, backing Archer, and it was vital because if England hadn’t taken those three wickets early with the newish ball, India would have won this Test match.
Archer dragged his length back, and got the two left-handers Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar and in between, Stokes, on the money from the start, got the wicket of KL Rahul.
It was a key passage. Yes, Brydon Carse might have bowled just as well, but choosing Archer and himself nailed the situation and India were reeling at 95 for seven at drinks.
As for his own exertions? It was typical of Stokes, wasn’t it? All year, we’ve heard from him that he had to look after himself and others would be looking after him too.
That’s fine when there’s nothing on the line, but when there is and it’s the last day of the game here is a cricketer you are just not taking the ball off, and so he pushed himself to exhaustion.
He knew there was a drop off in pace and ability to hit the deck between him and Chris Woakes and so had to keep pounding in.
When he did get his chance, credit to Woakes, because he got the wicket of Nitish Reddy just before lunch and that was a real lift because they knew once that ball got softer, it wasn’t going to do as much.
In the afternoon, without a frontline spinner, because of Shoaib Bashir’s injury, Stokes had to manage the runs.
To their credit, India were brave and smart, Ravindra Jadeja and the tail showing how streetwise they were in managing the chase.
Jadeja was just about doing it right, taking the right risks and at times Stokes must have been toying with bringing more fielders up and asking him to play even bigger shots to try to secure his dismissal.
When Stokes did tempt him, Jadeja responded with a six and a four, the result of which was the field being pushed back out again and a challenge for India to get the runs at one an over.
It was a real patience game. Going deeper and deeper, Stokes knew he might even get a second new ball.
In the end, though, it wasn’t so much the tactics that got England across the line as the character of the bowling attack.
In addition to Stokes, Carse and Woakes have played three Tests on the bounce, Archer was coming back from such a long injury and they showed an immense amount of heart.
Even then, in the end, because the four of them were dead on their feet, and he needed to get to the new ball, Stokes had to call on Bashir.
It was spinning a bit, and they got a bit of luck. But for their efforts, they deserved that luck.
