By Prof. B.K. Viswanath

There was a galore of frustration writ large on the face of Ben Stokes, the English Captain at the end of the Old Trafford Test in which England had gained an upper hand but failed to clinch the game because of rains. The July 19-23 Ashes Test had all the elements of high drama, expectations, joy, disappointment, climax and anticlimax as the match progressed.

In a nutshell, Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to field. The Aussies in their first Innings could muster 317 runs to which England replied with a massive 592. For England, Chris Woakes grabbed 5 wickets and when the hosts batted, Josh Hazlewood got five wickets, bowling in a hostile, disciplined manner.

The Aussies had to score 275 runs to avoid an Innings defeat. At Old Trafford, the importance of either winning the match or drawing it, was very much on their mind, to avoid any hiccups in the 5th Test at The Oval.

At Old Trafford, England came close to winning the game but Australia was equally determined to deny the opponents a victory. For Australia, both Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh fought a grim battle with all their skills and technique to save the game. They could avoid a possible defeat with the help of rain which eventually got the team a drawn Test match.

For England, Moeen Ali’s fighting 51 runs at number 3 slot proved one of fruitions. Before the match, Geoff Boycott had opined that it would be better for England to play 3 opening batsmen so that Joe Root could stick to his customary number 4, wherein he had scored a lot of runs for England. As the match progressed, Zak Crawley and Root put on a hurricane 206 runs as the opener hit a magnificent 189 with Root playing a classic game to score 84 runs. Their good work was supported by Harry Brook and Stokes who scored a splendid 61 and 51 runs respectively.

With the entry of the burly Jonny Bairstow, the English wicket keeper who started hitting the ball all around the Old Stafford ground while scoring a cameo 99 not out. Obviously, he had in mind the rather unsporting act of Alex Carey stumping him in the second Test. For Australia, only Hazlewood bowled with hostility and fire to scalp 5 English wickets. To the misfortune of OZs, their spearhead seamer Mitchell  Starc had suffered an injury on his left shoulder and cramps on his legs also played havoc on him. Facing a deficit of 275 runs, Australia had many hiccups and when the chips were down, Labuschagne and Marsh steadied the Innings and took the score to 214/5, when rain intevened to save the OZs. In Australia’s first Innings, Stuart Broad got his 600th Test wicket when he dismissed Travis Head, (caught by Root) for 48. With this feat, Broad had jumped to a glorious arena and joined the elite club of England pacer James Anderson who was soaring high with 668 wickets. At this point, Broad had put behind his once hero Glenn McGrath, bettering the Aussie paceman’s bowling record.

The story of rain-affected matches goes a long way in cricket Test history. In the third test itself, England was helped by rain and after a little sunshine, the fast bowler Wood ran through the Aussie Innings to snatch an English victory. In a similar situation here in Bengaluru, AB De Villiers playing in his 100th Test in 2015, was robbed of his glorious appearance as it rained heavily resulting in a drawn match.

In another instance at Old Trafford, play was called off on day 3, in the match between England and West Indies on July 18, 2023 when the proceedings were shelved. But on day 4, with a better weather forecast, England won the match against West Indies by 269 runs with Broad taking 10 wickets and Woakes getting 5 in that Test.

At the end of the Old Trafford Test match, Ben Stokes was looking at the pitch from the dressing room and remarked, “Tough pill to swallow.”

Joe Root too came out with the words, “It does not get dark till 10 o’clock here in the summer, why can’t we just keep playing?’ Hoping against hope, the English players were seen kicking a football around in the outfield.

Ben Stokes was frustrated to experience the Old Trafford Test being forced into a draw. He had pinned hopes of the English victory when he commented on the performance of the team by saying, “Pretty much perfect”.

Note: The author, a resident of Mysuru, is presently at New Jersey, US.