The England captain took a wicket with his first ball since July although India continued to dominate the fifth Test
n a match stuffed with milestones, we waited, but not, as it turns out, for Jimmy. Not for a 700th Test wicket, but a 198th.
On another tricky day for England, as a 3-1 series defeat drifted out of sight and 4-1 slotted into the sightlines, and just as India’s first innings looked about to launch into the stratosphere,It had been so long that you had almost forgotten he could do it, pounding the pistons into the ground, though those following in India had seen him practising on the outfield as the tour went on, and with increasing vigour.
What a way to do it, a first ball that jagged just enough off a good length to clip the top of Rohit Sharma’s off-stump. The batter, on 103, glanced behind, bemused, and allowed himself a little smile before trudging away, kicking his foot in frustration as he passed over the boundary rope. On the balcony, Brendon McCullum put his hands over his mouth and glanced at Paul Collingwood. On the field, Zak Crawley put his hand over his mouth and patted Stokes, who, mostly, stalked away.
With both the morning session centurions gone, Stokes and Anderson had the debutant Devdutt Padikkal and ingenu Sarfaraz Khan on the ropes for half an hour. But the young Indians stuck to their task and once again the runs started to flow. Stokes then spilled coffee over his own lines by dropping a caught and bowled – albeit off a no-ball – and leaning across Joe Root only to shell what would have been Shoaib Bashir’s fifth wicket on the Dharamsala grass.