ENG VS WI - 2nd Test, West Indies tour of England, 2020

Let's settle the debate -- there's the world's best all-rounder, there's daylight, and then there's the ICC's top all-rounder. Yea, we're converts. But with the 117-day cricket drought that we've been through, there really can't be more we could've asked from this series. A clinical chase, a final hour heist and 1-1 going into the final Test. We'll stop then, as I, Vineet Anantharaman, sign off on behalf of Rishi Roy, Akshay Maanay, Sagar Chawla, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and Abhinand Raghavendran. Until Manchester again, and in the hope of us scribbling more of our our acquired wisdom on this page, ta ta!!

Ben Stokes | MoM: [On his injury while bowling] I am fine. Just probably sad to get stiff and when I said to Broady, he asked me to stop. I had the same sort of stiffness 3-4 years back against Pakistan, didn't want to take that risk again. [On the team overusing him?] Absolutely not. I do everything the team asks of me and we have found the method of playing dry cricket with the field. Not only does it give us a wicket, it also keeps the run rate in check because the batsmen can't get away. In the first innings it just came about. We didn't feel there was any lateral movement off the pitch or anything. Bouncing six balls into the wicket is a plan we use in Tests. [His batting contrasts across innings] Both completely different roles, last night and this morning was simple in terms of what we needed to do to get ahead of the game. A lot of credit has to go to the spell the bowlers bowled yesterday - Broad, Woakes, Curran and Bess. There are discussions, but Joe has the final call on when I bowl. He made a positive effort to get Jos and me up the order. Looking at the scoreboard and seeing 300 balls faced was quite strange (laughs). Never thought I'd ever see that.

Joe Root (England) | Winning captain: It was a brilliant week of cricket. From the outset making 400 for the third time in four games was great. From that point on in this game, we just drove the game on. At the start of the day all three results were possible and it was great to finish on top. [On Sibley's batting] I mean that's exactly what we want from him - to go out there and make that big contribution and then Stokes just keeps getting better and better. He went through a range of gears and played the situation. He doesn't surprise me, if you watch how he goes about his business in training and practice, he leads the way. He just wants to get better and better and it is great for a lot of young guys coming in to see that. [On Broad's comments after the last game] You expect that from Stuart. When he says something you expect him to back it up. He put up a great performance in the first innings and today as well. We always feel that he has a long career ahead. [Selection for the next game] That was always going to be the case with the ball. It's the first time we have so many options available. It is a good headache and a fantastic position to be in as a team.

Jason Holder (West Indies) | Losing captain: We're disappointed with the result. We have let ourselves down. England played a good game of cricket so they deserve all the credit. We could have stretched the game yesterday, but that's when we let ourselves down and lost wickets in clusters. England bowlers challenged our batters a lot, stuck to their tasks, and held their lengths. The batters got caught in the crease; we need to get forward or back and make sure we are decisive about playing or leaving and also with our footwork. We have a few days left to ponder these things. It's a short-term problem, honestly. We need to understand scenarios better. English bowlers tend to bowl long spells, so we need more grit and trust our defences for longer. No regrets about the toss, Stokes and Sibley deserve the credit for their innings. I remember we passed the bat a few times and put down chances, and we need to make sure that doesn't happen in the final Test. We are experienced enough. After a long layoff, we are getting used to the workload, and we just have to see how the bowlers pull up before the last game. We are here to fight, I know the guys are feeling this loss, and we'll give it everything in this last game.

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Stats brought to you by Deepu Narayanan

Wins for England against other teams
110 vs Aus (351 Tests)
64 vs SA (153)
50 vs WI (159) *
48 vs NZ (105)
47 vs Ind (122)

Teams opting to field first at Old Trafford
Tests: 9
Won: 0
Lost: 2
Draw: 7
The other defeat came in 1993 when England lost to Australia (Shane Warne's 'Ball of the Century' Test)

This is the sixth time WI have lost a Test after starting their fourth innings on the fifth day
v Eng Edgbaston 1963
v SL Kandy 2001/02
v Ban Arnos Vale 2009
v NZ Bridgetown 2014
v Ind Gros Islet 2016
v Eng Manchester 2020*

- Tests involving Sam Curran in England: 8 | Tests won by England: 8
He joins Ken Barrington, MJK Smith, Andrew Strauss, Geraint Jones and Tim Bresnan among England players to win each of their first eight home Tests.

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Jasshan: "Clearly Ben Stokes is way too good!!!" - You don't say. Been living under a rock, have ya? Never a better time for THAT!

So West Indies never looked confident of playing this day out. They started quite poorly with the ball and were as horrible as you could imagine with their fielding and catching. And then their top-order just gave in to Broad's new ball magic. There's something about dropped egos, and Broad clearly had his dropped, fractured and with stitches. And when Blackwood fell at the stroke of Tea, it was always a matter of time. Not that England needed it, but the second new ball too was only a few overs away. Anyway, Dowrich bagged a pair, Holder surprisingly didn't hang around, and Gabriel didn't even need his slog. Stick around, we'll bring you the presentations.

18:19 Local Time, 17:19 GMT, 22:49 IST: Clearly England aren't all that bad. You'd thought they may have missed the bus when they lost their frontline bowler, they may have missed the bus when they couldn't enforce the follow-on, they may have missed the bus with Brooks and Blackwood going the way they were pre-Tea, but what you clearly didn't know was that the bus driver was theirs -- BEN STOKES. He's no normal human. He's probably not even human. Surely no one churns up a century in over 250 balls in an innings and then smashes a fifty at over 120 in the same match. Then bowls 11 over spells. And then bowls bouncer after bouncer with the old soft ball hoping someone somewhere would glove one through. Get his DNA checked, ICC ..

Dom Bess to Roach, out Caught by Ollie Pope!! Forget the one hour, it's the one ball that'll do. Pope's already writing a short-leg fielding manual, and he's added another page with this catch. You aren't meant to take these clips that aren't bat-pads. No one's cared telling Pope this, who once again finds himself in the area of a forward flick, and then despite not clinging on in the first attempt, manages to dive to his left and pluck. England are alive, the Wisden Trophy is alive. Roach c Ollie Pope b Dom Bess 5(31) [4s-1]

Dom Bess to Roach, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

One hour | 15 overs | 1 wicket. Be warned!

Root to Gabriel, no run, sees it through. Okay, one final hour now to see out. And before that, one final drinks break ..

Root to Gabriel, no run, he's writing the script all over again. Solid resolute blocks

Root to Gabriel, no run, back again, clearly Root needs to be fuller

Root to Gabriel, no run, a tad shorter than normal, but defended