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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Andy Bull at Lord’s

Fielding becomes self-flagellation for Stokes and co as England toil away

A dejected Ben Stokes reacts after delivering a no-ball to Pat Cummins in the second Test at Lord's
A dejected Ben Stokes reacts after delivering a no-ball to Pat Cummins. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

Ahh, Bazballs. The old salts around the ground have been complaining for days that England need to learn there’s more than one way to play this game. Saturday turned out to be an object lesson in exactly that. England slogged up the long, hard road to taking the wickets they needed and once they finally had them watched Australia canter down the straight, short one.

They still need six more to win, but then three of those bat below Stuart Broad. England, on the other hand, probably need Ben Stokes to work the same sort of miracle he did at Headingley in 2019 else they will be two-nil down with three games to play.

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