Ben Stokes is some character. He always likes to be in the mix of things. He’s a man of incredible skills and a box-office cricketer. Virat Kohli’s batting today was poetry in motion. It needed something special to get him off the pitch. And special things and Stokes go well together.
For all of you, cricket folks, let me tell you that the epic Ben Stokes vs Virat Kohli rivalry is back. Kohli has been quite silent for his personality in this Test. But today, Ben Stokes has again reignited the rivalry as the heat is on as we move to the second Test. But before that lets’s get to back what happened a short while back.
So, Virat Kohli was batting like a dream on a tricky day five surface. Or I should say, it’s his world and we were dreaming as such was the trance he had gotten into when every wheel was coming off for India. He had weathered the storm against the reverse-swing king and his nemesis James Anderson. He had punished Dom Bess in a dominating fashion making up for his first-innings dismissal. He was playing Jack Leach with all the ease and class in the world.
But then came Ben Stokes with the 55th over. Just like Red (Morgan Freeman) in Shaswank Redemption, he is the man who can get things done. And he does it for England. He hits the rough patch to perfection as the ball doesn’t get up after pitching and races past the bottom of Kohli’s bat to disturb the woodwork.
The Indian captain is left stunned. He again misses a century. Keeps starting at the surface. But Ben Stokes is hardly concerned. He is in his own world and celebrating even more crazily than he did after the 2019 World Cup win. He is animated even when the Indian skipper walks past him. And their rivalry is again ready to lit up the series as Kohli has a good memory.
Watch the video here: