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.
MAL
144/3
HKG
140/10
SGP
133/7
SAM
132/6
Singapore beat Samoa by 3 wickets
HKG
–
SAM
–
SGP
–
MAL
–
WI
–
AUS
–
RWA
139/6
ML
134/5
Rwanda won by 4 wickets
BHN
211/4
RWA
99/10
Bahrain won by 112 runs
ML
–
RWA
–
BHN
–
ML
–
GLO
–
LAN
208/5
DIF-W
38/0
STO-W
37/4
Djurgardens IF Women beat Stockholm CC Women by 10 wickets
ALZ-W
89/5
DIF-W
95/4
Djurgardens IF Women beat Alby Zalmi Women by 6 runs
STO-W
41/10
ALZ-W
42/2
Alby Zalmi Women beat Stockholm CC Women by 8 wickets
DIF-W
43/0
STO-W
42/6
Djurgardens IF Women beat Stockholm CC Women by 10 wickets
ALZ
–
HDN
–
JIHCC
–
MAR
–
HDN
–
ALZ
–
HDN
–
JIHCC
–
MAR
–
ALZ
–
91YC
35/5
NVR
62/4
Navarang Club beat 91 Yards Club by 27 runs
BCC
147/8
CCC
128/10
Bud Cricket Club beat City Cricket Club by 19 runs
TBC
–
TBC
–
TBC
–
TBC
–
EWW-W
–
MZW-W
–
MWW-W
–
LSN-W
–
BOT-W
–
SLO-W
–
RWA-W
–
CW-W
–
ENG-W
63/2
IND-W
318/5
ENG
–
IND
–
RLC
–
KRMPS
–
MECS
–
CHK
–
FLI
–
MIB
–
Match Abandoned Due to Rain
CAT
–
CBS
–
GCF
–
BRT
–
CAT
–
MIB
–
VEV
–
BRT
–
CBS
–
FLI
–
TBC
–
TBC
–
TBC
–
TBC
–
BAN
133/10
PAK
125/10
Bangladesh won by 8 runs
KNY
83/7
NBA
113/8
Kenya won by 3 wickets (D/L) method
UGA
147/6
NIG
109/10
Uganda won by 38 runs
UAE
–
KNY
–
UGAA
–
NBA
–
OAW
186/7
MMS
216/5
Mahe Megalo Strikers beat Ossudu Accord Warriors by 30 runs
KAK
–
VMK
60/0
BAD
192/5
SGT
180/9
Band-e-Amir Dragons beat Speen Ghar Tigers by 12 runs
ASS
162/10
MAK
168/5
Mis-e-Ainak Knights beat Amo Sharks by 5 wickets
EDC
154/10
WIC
164/9
West Indies Champions beat England Champions by 10 runs
IAC
–
SAC
19/0
AAC
–
WIC
–
NZ
135/3
SA
134/8
New Zealand beat South Africa by 7 wickets
IRE-W
112/1
ZIM-W
–
IRE-W
–
ZIM-W
–
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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