Ben Stokes' side won the Lord's Test, but also lost two WTC points
Ben Stokes and England were utterly jubilant on the final evening at Lord’s after off-spinner Shoaib Bashir got the ball to spin around Mohammed Siraj’s legs and dislodged a bail even after India’s last man defended the delivery with a full face of his bat.
Even though England took a deserved 2-1 lead in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, they had something worse coming at them the following morning.
AUSA-W
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INDA-W
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VSS
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BVB
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AMR
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TBW
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ABF
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TKR
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SKA
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BR
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ODW
194/3
NDS
193/10
Outer Delhi Warriors beat North Delhi Strikers by 7 wickets
CDK
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WDL
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NDSW
117/4
CDQW
120/9
Central Delhi Queens Women beat North Delhi Strikers Women by 1 wickets
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SDSW
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ROM
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CZR
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ROM
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CZR
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HTBC
139/2
SCE
140/3
SC Europa beat HTB Cricket by 7 wickets
HTBC
107/2
VFB
102/10
HTB Cricket beat VFB Fallersleben by 8 wickets
SCE
86/7
SGFD
93/8
SG Findorff beat SC Europa by 7 runs
VFB
125/6
BRCC
121/6
VFB Fallersleben beat Berlin CC by 4 wickets
BRCC
91/5
SGFD
107/4
SG Findorff beat Berlin CC by 16 runs
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SCE
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HTBC
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SGFD
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BRCC
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SCE
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SGFD
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VFB
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HTBC
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BRCC
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LAN
320/10
DURH
321/6
Durham beat Lancashire by 4 wickets
LEI
312/5
DER
312/10
HAM
290/7
NOT
292/6
Nottinghamshire beat Hampshire by 4 wickets
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371/6
GLAM
124/7
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157/7
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114/8
Netherlands Women beat Italy Women by 43 runs
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63/0
GER-W
62/10
Ireland Women beat Germany Women by 10 wickets
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Match Called off
MUR
332/9
NWW
334/9
North West Warriors beat Munster Reds by 2 runs
LLG
226/4
NK
223/10
Leinster Lightning beat Northern Knights (Ireland) by 6 wickets
PCR
80/8
GUJCC
127/9
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BCC
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KZK
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SBSCC
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ATR
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GBM
213/3
MYW
209/5
Gulbarga Mystics beat Mysore Warriors by 7 wickets
HBT
141/8
BNB
125/7
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BNB
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MAT
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125/8
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129/8
Southern Brave beat Welsh Fire by 4 runs
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127/3
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TRR
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111/6
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112/7
Southern Brave Women beat Welsh Fire Women by 3 wickets
LSW-W
90/8
NOS-W
93/2
Northern Superchargers Women beat London Spirit Women by 8 wickets
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TRW-W
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CHK
152/8
ACOM
126/10
Chicago Kingsmen beat Australian Capital Territory by 26 runs
MS-A
166/4
PSA
167/3
Perth Scorchers Academy beat Melbourne Stars Academy by 7 wickets
NEP
139/9
MR-A
106/10
Nepal beat Melbourne Renegades Academy by 33 runs
PS
202/6
AS-A
95/10
Pakistan Shaheens beat Adelaide Strikers Academy by 107 runs
MR-A
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HHA
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ACOM
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AS-A
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NTS
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CHK
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BANA
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MS-A
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NOSK
172/10
GOLS
186/7
Gorakhpur Lions beat Noida Super Kings by 14 runs
LUF
184/5
KASS
171/6
Lucknow Falcons beat Kanpur Superstars by 1 runs
NOSK
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KARS
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MEMA
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GOLS
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The match officials deemed that the hosts were too slow with their bowling, having managed 57.1 overs across three sessions on the final day and fined them 10 per cent of the match fees as well as two of the 12 points they won for that win in the context of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle.
Stokes felt that it was harsh by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to dock points when the conditions in the United Kingdom do not allow teams to bowl spinners all the time.
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In the third Test, England had 30.5 overs of spin in between Shoaib Bashir and Joe Root across two innings. Bashir, their only frontline spin option, had sustained an injury to his non-bowling hand and didn’t bowl until after the Lunch break on Day 5.
Stokes pointed out that the unavailability of Bashir had created a problem for England to go through their overs quickly.
“You can’t have the same rules in Asia, where spin is bowling 70 per cent of the overs, to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it’s going to be 70-80 per cent seam bowling,” Stokes said in the press conference ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester.
“Because a spinner’s over takes less time than a seam is over. So common sense would think that you should look at maybe changing how the over rates are timed in different continents. I think as well, the over rates obviously have gone down over the course of quite a few years now,” he added.
Even though Stokes had mentioned Bashir’s unavailability, England had managed to fit in 17.4 overs of fast bowling in the final 90 minutes of the fourth day. Stokes himself was rushing back to his run-up mark after every delivery to give his fellow pacers, especially Brydon Carse, to the set the field and get two vital wickets. The tactic helped England as they were able to reduce India to 58/4 in chase of 193.
However, on the final day, England were able to clock in 57.1 overs across three sessions. By the time the match ended with Siraj’s wicket, there was around 150 minutes and close to 32 overs of play left in the day.
Besides the over-rate controversy, vice-captain Harry Brook’s ‘spirit of cricket’ quotes lit a fuse before the Manchester Test. Brook said that the confrontation between opener Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Indian captain Shubman Gill in the final minutes on Day 3 fired up England to be fierce on the field for the next two days.
Gill had a reply ready for this as he accused England of time wasting when there were only few minutes left in the play.
“Let me just clear the air for once and for all. The English batsmen on that day, they had seven minutes of play left. They were 90 seconds late to come to the crease. Not 10, not 20, but 90 seconds late. Yes, most of the teams, they use this. Even if we were in a position, we would have also liked to play lesser overs. But there’s a manner to do it,” Gill said in the press conference at Old Trafford.
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