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 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.
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.
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
