Christchurch, 1 December (IANS). England captain Ben Stokes said he will be available to play in the second Test against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Sunday. Stokes was injured during the first test match.
While bowling to Tim Southee, Ben Stokes had to leave his over midway due to some trouble. In his place, Gus Atkinson was given the ball to finish the over. After this he did not bowl, although he decided to remain on the field. England won the match by chasing 104 runs on the fourth day.
Stokes said after the match, “It’s been a busy week. Spent a lot of time on the field and I bowled 20 overs. I tried my best with the bat too. I hurt my back while diving for the ball, so It was more a matter of management than anything else. The position we were in in the game, I felt the body would be fit for this match and I was looking forward to playing for Wellington. “
In the match, Stokes scored 80 runs in the second innings, he bowled a total of 19.3 overs. He also talked about his partnership with Harry Brook and Gus Atkinson to help England score 499 runs in the first innings.
He said, “It was cool. After Gus and Carsey came in and batted like that, I was throwing strikes to them and thinking, ‘I should play this role!’ We found ourselves in a difficult position and I tried to build a partnership with Brook so that we could get a good score.”
Brook played a explosive innings of 171 runs and luck was on his side as New Zealand dropped five catches. “When the opposition is dropping catches left, right and centre, you want to go ahead and score big,” he said.
New Zealand are now down 0-1 in the series, with captain Tom Latham admitting that they still need to improve on some things.
He said, “If we had taken a few catches when England were 70-4 in the first innings, things could have been a little different. The team made some mistakes, including me.
–IANS
AMJ/AS
