London: England all-rounder Ben Stokes has denied the claims that in his latest book “Ben Stokes on Fire”, he suggested that India deliberately lost to England at the 2019 World Cup in the round-robin stage.
Former Pakistan bowler Sikander Bakht recently claimed on Twitter that Stokes, in his book, has said that India lost intentionally to England to remove Pakistan from the World Cup.
“Ben Stokes writes in his book that India lost to England deliberately to remove Pakistan from world Cup 19 and we predicted it,” Bakht tweeted.
In response to Bakht’s tweet, a Twitter user asked where has Stokes made such comments. In response to the user’s question, the star England all-rounder himself responded: “You won’t find it cause I have never said it… it’s called “twisting of words” or “click bait”.”
In a do-or-die game on June 30 at Edgbaston last year, England first posted a huge total of 337/7 riding on a brilliant century from Jonny Bairstow. And then, they came out with a disciplined bowling performance to restrict the star-studded Indian batting line-up to 306/5 in their allotted 50 overs and win the match by 31 runs.
Following early dismissal, Kohli along with Rohit Sharma steadied the Indian run-chase.
The Indian captain continued his fine form and brought up his 5th consecutive half-century of the tournament in the 20th over. Rohit followed his captain’s example and brought up his own fifty in the 23rd over. The two put up a 138-run stand.
Playing in his first World Cup game Rishabh Pant scored a decent 32 off 29 balls before a stunning catch by Woakes at deep square leg off the bowling of Plunkett ended Pant’s stay in the middle.
Pant was out in the 40th over with India struggling at 226/4.
Hardik Pandya tried to give India a late push but became Plunkett’s 3rd victim when he found the fielder at long-on.
Pandya returned with 45 off 33 balls. Following Pandya’s dismissal MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav only added 39 off 31 balls as India’s run-chase fizzled out. England won by 31 runs while also ending India’s unbeaten run at the World Cup 2019. Jonny Bairstow as adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant century.
The Men in Blue, meanwhile, had to face a lot of criticism for their batting approach during the chase as despite having wickets in hand, they didn’t go for the kill in the end moments. Questions were even raised on M.S. Dhoni’s approach to the chase and if he had forgotten the art of finishing games.
IANS has also reviewed the book and there was no such mention. In his book, Stokes does talk about the approach of the Indians in that chase and how it was surprising to see them looking to keep wickets in the kitty and take the game to the backend.
Stokes, in fact, also speaks about how this might no longer be the smart way of approaching the game as the required run-rate starts piling up and it starts impacting those that come in at the fall of a wicket. (IANS)
