England captain Ben Stokes said that the way India bowled in its second innings decided the course of the match.
“Cricket is always skill against skill,” the 32-year-old stated. “Ashwin, [Ravindra] Jadeja and Kuldeep [Yadav] and the conditions we found ourselves in against them was very, very challenging. You’ve got to give them credit for the way they bowled in very favourable conditions. Their skill was better than ours.”
But Stokes felt 192 was still a defendable target.
“The wicket changed so much throughout every single day. It went through periods in the morning where it settled down. But as the sun came and it was hotter, it did more. We took wickets in clusters, and even with 30 runs left we knew that if we went bang bang, all the pressure was back on India.
“I’m proud of how everyone stuck to their tasks even if their roles were to just be fielders. That’s what I want from everyone, to never give up, because you never know where a game is going to go.”
Now that England has lost the series, its first under Brendon McCullum and Stokes, there will be some scrutiny over match strategies. But Stokes was emphatic in his defense of England’s methods.
“You can have it all taken away from you at the click of a finger, so why not enjoy every opportunity and make sure you are doing it with a smile on your face? It is a very short career so why not make it as enjoyable as you can?
“You can either put way too much pressure on yourself because you’re at the highest level, or you can look at it as a very rare opportunity in terms of how many professional cricketers there are in the world, and you get to represent my country. So why not try to enjoy it as much you can?”
