England’s red-ball captain Ben Stokes has been impressed with his lone spinner Shoaib Bashir, who has displayed his incredible skill of spinning the ball, with a five-wicket haul, to hand the West Indies team a 241-run defeat on the fourth afternoon during the second Test of the three-match series in Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
Chasing a huge 385-run target, the visitors started quite decently with a 61-run opening partnership before they fell like a pack of cards, with Shoaib Bashir showing his skill with figures of 5/41 in 11.1 overs, to bowl out the opponents for just 143 in the fourth innings of the contest.
It was a phenomenal effort from the spinner, given he didn’t touch the ball at Lord’s during the first Test of the series and still went on to pick up a fifer in the second innings on a good batting surface at Trent Bridge, putting the ball in the right line and length with an accurate pace.
‘Wow, special stat’- Ben Stokes on Shoaib Bashir’s cracking Test record
Even though it was just the fifth Test match of Bashir having made his debut during the India tour, at the start of this year, he has already managed to collect three five-wicket hauls, and his first on home soil- surpassing the recently retired James Anderson who achieved the feat as the youngest bowler.
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‘Wow, special stat. Bash showed the world what he’s about today, on a wicket that wasn’t necessarily offering too much for spin throughout the whole game.’ England’s Test leader Ben Stokes addressed the post-match presentation on Sky Sports. ‘The ability he had to be able to change his pace, change his line, and manipulate how he wanted the ball to react out of the surface was top-class.’
The veteran was quite pleased with the range of contributors to his Test victory. Ollie Pope showed his class with a first-innings hundred, while both Yorkshire batter Harry Brook and Joe Root put up a vital fourth wicket stand under gloomy conditions of the third evening.
‘In batting, we talk a lot about partnerships, and it’s the same thing with bowling. You look at the amount of wickets at the other end when Woody was bowling his spells, that’s the effect that a bowler like Woody can have.’ Ben Stokes noticed.
Mark Wood bowled exceptionally well with aggression and pace which was the exact need of the surface, despite getting only two wickets as a reward across his 28 overs in the game.
‘On another day, Woody could have got Man of the Match, the way that he bowled was just phenomenal. He’s got the heart of a lion, he’ll run in ball after ball after ball for us.’ The New Zealand-born Ben Stokes observed. ‘And his pace is just phenomenal but it’s the skill that he’s got as well, to be able to consistently hit a certain area, with batters always thinking ‘When is it coming at my head.’
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Post the end of the era for both Stuart Broad and James Anderson, it was important for experienced Chris Woakes to shoulder the responsibility, as he did, especially during the third morning, picking up regular wickets and bowling a long spell.
‘He really found some rhythm, I thought, in his second spell on day two, and he led the attack so well today.’ Ben Stokes pointed out at the end of the game. ‘Chris Woakes is Mr. Dependable, he generally always delivers, but the pressure from external noise about him leading the attack hasn’t affected him, and I think the performance he put in this week showed that.’
England will aim to wrap up the series with a 3-0 margin, as the third Test begins on July 26, at the Edgbaston, in Birmingham.