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“This is not a wake-up call or anything”: Ben Stokes remains unperturbed despite England’s innings defeat versus South Africa at Lord’s on Day 3

Gurpreet Singh
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"This is not a wake-up call or anything": Ben Stokes remains unperturbed despite England's innings defeat versus South Africa at Lord's on Day 3

Ben Stokes remains unperturbed despite registering his first defeat since becoming England’s Test captain in April this year.

During the first Test match of South Africa’s ongoing tour of England at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, South Africa have blown the hosts away by registering a thumping victory by an innings and 12 runs, to go 1-0 up in the three-Test series, in a contest which lasted just over six sessions.

The Proteas pace bowling trio of Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, and Lungi Ngidi were the architects-in-chief for the visitors’ victory today, as they picked up 18 of the 20 England wickets across the two innings.

With today’s victory, South Africa continue to march on with their exceptional Test result numbers at Lord’s, having lost just one of the previous seven Tests at this venue since the year 1992.

As for England, this is their first defeat by an innings at the iconic venue in 19 years, and their first in the much talked about ‘Bazball’ era, under the captain-coach duo of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

ALSO READ: Michael Vaughan predicts England’s loss even before their second innings

Ben Stokes remains unperturbed despite the loss

The ‘Bazball’ approach, which had helped Stokes and his men register record-breaking victories during each of their previous four Tests while chasing, came under fire post today’s crushing loss, after the same hasn’t yet received unanimous reception from the fans, experts and some strong proponents of Test match Cricket.

However, skipper Ben Stokes, claimed being not so much affected by today’s loss, which also happens be his first since taking up captainship duties of the England Test side.

Although, despite ruling out the defeat as a ‘wake-up call’, he did admit that his side could not execute the plans well.

“Captains before have also been criticized for the way the teams have played. This is not a wake-up call or anything, but we haven’t executed our plans well. South Africa have played better,” remarked Stokes during the post-match presentation.

About the author

Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh

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Gurpreet Singh is a Cricket writer at The Sportsrush. His platonic relationship with sports had always been there since childhood, but Cricket managed to strike a special, intimate nerve of his heart. Although his initial dream of playing the sport at the highest level couldn't come to fruition, Gurpreet did represent the state of Jharkhand at the under-14 level. However, almost like taking a pledge to never let the undying passion for Cricket fade away even a tad, he made sure to continue the love relationship by assigning the field of journalism as an indirect Cupid. He thus, first finished his bachelor's in journalism and then pursued the PG Diploma course in English journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Soon after and since 2019, he has been working at The Sportsrush. Apart from sports, he takes keen interest in politics, and in understanding women and gender-related issues.

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