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Inspiration behind Ben Stokes' leadership and high work rate is a Brad Pitt movie

Inspiration behind Ben Stokes' leadership and high work rate is a Brad Pitt movie

Indian Express2 days ago
England captain Ben Stokes is said to have gotten his biggest leadership lesson from a Brad Pitt war movie. Fury is about a US Army officer taking on the Germans in World War II. In an iconic scene from the movie, Pitt, playing tank commander Don 'Wardaddy' Collier, tells his men to retreat as he plans to guard the post alone. This was his way of telling them that the mission was too dangerous. After a moment of hesitation, every soldier lines up behind Pitt.
'I would never ask somebody to do something that I wasn't prepared to do. Have you seen Fury? The bit for me that stands out is when he tells them all to leave and he's just going to stand there and fight on his own,' Stokes had once told The Times cricket correspondent Michael Atherton.
This India-England series has been Stokes's Fury. For an England captain, leading from the front means doing the dirtiest of jobs. Today morning, England needed to be cautiously aggressive. They wanted quick runs but they couldn't afford to throw wickets. Overnight the home team was 544/7, leading by 176 runs. England wanted a lead of about 300 to bat out India from the game and put them under scoreboard pressure.
𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙢, 𝘾𝙤𝙤𝙡, 𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙣 🔥#BenStokes shows great composure, calmly facing 6 dot balls on 99 before finally reaching a well-earned century with a confident shot 🙌#ENGvIND 👉 4th TEST, DAY 4 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar 👉 https://t.co/xkvCs073fI pic.twitter.com/TzhM6CBR6L
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 26, 2025
So who would take the lead? Who else but Stokes. The two Indian new-ball bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were much better today, the pitch too was showing life. But Stokes planned his assault well, it was easy to decide who he would take on. Siraj it would be. On his second ball of the day, Stokes would step out and drive through covers for a four.
The next Bumrah over he would get to play a couple of balls and move to the other end, where he would wait for Siraj's second over. Once again on the second delivery, he got an over-pitched ball. Stokes would lean into it, go on his knees and blast it through cover. He held his pose as Old Trafford stood up and applauded. The Stokes show had commenced, the plan to score quickly, pile runs and put India into bat was on track. Here was a captain who would first draw the blueprint and also get into overalls to put in place the brick and mortar.
In the first session Stokes would hit 5 fours and 3 sixes to compile a quick hundred. The hands-on captain had once again set the tone and others had followed. Liam Dawson (26, 4×3) and Brydon Carse 47 (4×3, 6×2) followed the path that their captain had shown and India close to lunch were trailing by 311 runs. In the first session England had scored 115 runs in 22 overs. Once again the captain had run the hard yards.
It has been the same with the ball too. In this series, he has bowled over 125 overs, surely not the most in his team. But he bowled the longest spells in the toughest conditions. At Lord's on the final day, it was anybody's game. India was closing in on the total, England couldn't afford to have bowled loose balls. It was a game Jofra Archer was returning to international cricket after a long break. Stokes was to take the role of a strike-bowler.
Once again England needed someone to strike the perfect balance – a bowler who can attack but not give away runs and also take wickets. It was in the second innings that Stokes bowled the most number of overs — 24. There were a couple of marathon spells in the heat of London. After one 9-over spell he bowled unchanged for 10 overs. He didn't let off the pressure on India. In the first spell he got KL Rahul and there came another important strike at the right time.
When Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah seemed all set to pull off a miracle. There were many worried English faces around the ground. That's when Stokes became the tank commander from Fury, took it upon himself to close the game. The English captain would dig deep and bang a ball short. Bumrah would try to pull and get out.
At Lord's, Stokes bowled 24 overs in the second, after his 20 in the first. Old Trafford too hasn't eased his load. On the first day, he bowled 14 overs and 10 the next day. England needed to restrict India and Stokes's 5 wickets went a long way in reducing them 583. A fiver and 100 in one Test, Stokes has been the hands-on captain in this crucial game.
For his Lord's effort, Stokes would win praise from the rival camp. Siraj would say: 'If you can learn from someone there is no shame, Ben Stokes bowled two spells of 10 overs each and hats off to him'. Even today after the England captain was leaving the field after his hundred, Siraj would run across and shake his hands.
The only player who can match Stokes's charisma in this series is Rishabh Pant. The Indian wicket-keeper has shown in the series he too can change games by doing the dirtiest job in the most beautiful manner. Now that Pant is out, Stokes the Showman has the stage all to himself. And the rest of the England cast is just repeating his moves.
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‘Indian chess is just unbelievable': World of chess reacts as 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh wins Women's World Cup
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‘Indian chess is just unbelievable': World of chess reacts as 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh wins Women's World Cup

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The great champion she is!It was a great celebration of Indian… — Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) July 28, 2025 Here is how the world of social media reacted to Divya's achievements: Viswanathan Anand took X to congratulate both Divya and Humpy for the stellar finale. He wrote,' Congratulations to @Divyadeshmukh05 on winning the World Cup. Becoming GM and a spot in the candidates. Amazing battle of nerves. @humpy_koneru played a very good event and showed a commendable fighting spirit . The great champion she is! It was a great celebration of Indian chess, particularly Women's chess.' Another Chess prodigy and Grandmaster 21-year-old Nihal Sarin posted a photo with Divya from their early days and congratulated her. Congratulations @DivyaDeshmukh05!! First Indian to win the Women's World Cup! Also congrats on becoming a grandmaster! — Nihal Sarin (@NihalSarin) July 28, 2025 He wrote on X,'Congratulations @DivyaDeshmukh05!! First Indian to win the Women's World Cup! 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Sunil Gavaskar slams Ben Stokes and co: ‘Everything cannot be done according to what the England team wants'
Sunil Gavaskar slams Ben Stokes and co: ‘Everything cannot be done according to what the England team wants'

Indian Express

time21 minutes ago

  • Indian Express

Sunil Gavaskar slams Ben Stokes and co: ‘Everything cannot be done according to what the England team wants'

The final day of the fourth Test between India and England at Old Trafford saw England captain Ben Stokes offering the handshake to Indian batsmen Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar prior to the last one hour of the Test with the Indian batsman refusing so and deciding to continue. With Stokes and other England players targeting Jadeja and Sundar with comments like 'You want to get a Test hundred against Harry Brook?' and other comments, Jadeja and Sundar went on to complete their hundreds before they decided to agree for the draw. Former Indian captain and legend Sunil Gavaskar has called the English team including Stokes for their 'whining' tactics. 'Towards the end of the Test, a few grumpy English players were unhappy that the batters at the crease, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, declined the offer to end the day's play when England captain Ben Stokes proposed it at the start of the final hour. Instead, they opted to bat on and complete their hundreds. The England players felt that, since there was no chance of a result, the Indians should have accepted the offer to conclude proceedings. They seem to forget that two teams are playing out there, and if one decides to continue, the other simply has to accept it. They made sarcastic remarks about the batters, who were in their 80s, getting to their centuries off the bowling of a batter. What they overlooked was the hard work and resilience the batters had shown against frontline bowlers for over four hours to reach the 80s. If they wanted a hundred for their efforts, England should have denied them with proper bowlers rather than whining about them getting there against Harry Brook,' Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar. Jadeja and Sundar stitched together an unbroken fifth wicket partnership of 202 runs to deny England a win to take a 3-1 series lead in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. India had started the final day of the Test trailing England by 137 runs with eight wickets in hand in the fourth innings and needed to survive the day to have any hopes of not losing the five Test series. While India lost KL Rahul and captain Subhuman Gill, Jadeja and Sundar made sure that India were placed safely with 75 runs ahead of England with six wickets in hand before the start of the last hour. With Indian batsmen playing for five more overs, which also saw Jadeja and Sundar complete their hundreds, it meant that a frustrated England team targeted the Indian batsman with verbal comments. Gavaskar also shared how if he was the captain, he would have told the batsmen to play out the remaining overs. 'A Test century isn't easy and doesn't come every match, so the batters were fully entitled to bat on and reach their personal landmarks — which they eventually did. If I were the captain, I'd have told them to keep batting and play out the remaining overs, tiring out the fielders even more — especially after the shenanigans by the English players once their offer was declined,' wrote Gavaskar. Post the match, Stokes talked about how he wanted his frontline bowlers not facing the risk of injury and hence the offer for a draw. Gavaskar termed it as the England team wanting everything to be done what they want. 'Shubman Gill is a young skipper and a fine gentleman, so after the draw in Manchester, he didn't ask why England batted on to score over 600 and take a lead of 311. Were they afraid that if the lead was just 250, India might score 500 and then bowl England out for less in the fourth innings? By batting on even after Stokes got his century, England perhaps didn't leave their bowlers enough time to bowl India out and win the match and with it, the series. Everything cannot be done according to what the England team wants. This is yet another example of that old syndrome: when we do it, it's right; when the opposition does the same, it's wrong. Those days are long gone, and no one, least of all the Indian team, is going to simply accept it,' Gavaskar wrote further. Gavaskar was also of the view that England missed a trick with deteriorating light prior to the final hour. And this would have avoided the controversy. 'There's only a three-day break before the next Test. If England didn't want two more centuries recorded against them, they could have brought the quicks back on. The natural light was deteriorating, and the floodlights were on. Had Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse been given the ball, the umpires might have intervened and stopped play — so perhaps England missed a trick there,' Gavaskar wrote. With the last test at The Oval beginning on Thursday, India can still level the series with a win at the venue. Gavaskar also termed the five Test series as a 'terrific' series. 'These little irritants aside, it has been a terrific series, and the cricket from both sides has been riveting. The fifth and final Test at The Oval will hopefully deliver another thriller to round off what has been one of the finest Test series, a pleasure and privilege to watch,' concluded Gavaskar.

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