Stokes’ gut feeling, Ganguly’s shirt swinging: Archer casts spell

london: Jofra Archer took inspiration from Sourav Ganguly’s famous shirt swinging show at the 2002 Natwest Trophy final to produce a decisive spell for England on Day 5 of the third Test against India here on Monday, revealed skipper Ben Stokes.

Archer removed the dangerous Rishabh Pant with a peach before taking a return catch to dismiss Washington Sundar as India went down by 22 runs despite trying their best to recover from those body blows.

“I just said to him this morning, ‘you know what today is, don’t you?’ So he told me. ‘You know that highlight package of India knocking off 300-odd back in the day with Ganguly (waving shirt).’ He (Archer) thought that was the World Cup final. He thought that was six years today,” Stokes said after an energy-sapping win.

Interestingly, England scripted a famous win at Lord’s on the same day they had won the 2019 ODI World Cup final in rather controversial circumstances.

However, when Stokes reminded Archer about that momentous day six years ago, the pacer thought of the Ganguly moment that happened 17 years ago, mixing the dates of ICC World Cup final and the NatWest title clash in 2002.

“I was like, no…that World Cup that we won? He was like, ‘oh that one’. He’s an absolute beauty, that boy. I just had the feeling today and that Rishabh Pant wicket was massive in a low run chase,” said Stokes

Stokes was very mindful of England’s WC win in 2019 on this day.

“We knew that turning up this morning was genuinely the reason why we went with me and Jof (Archer). It felt right in my tummy that Jof was gonna do something this morning to break the game open.Gut feel doesn’t always work but those two wickets he got this morning obviously swung the game massively in our favour.”

The England captain has supported Archer wholeheartedly and they also share a special bond. It was evident on the field in the morning.