’54 runs the fir bhi out na kar paye’- Fans react as Ben Stokes speaks about declaration on Day 1

Ben Stokes did not mince words when explaining why England declared their first innings at the conclusion of Day 1 of the first Test match in the ongoing Ashes series. On Tuesday, Australia won the opening Test of the Ashes by two wickets at Edgbaston. Chasing a target of 281, Australia appeared to be in danger when they lost the important wicket of Usman Khawaja, leaving them needing 72 more runs to win with only three wickets in hand.

However, Australia’s captain Pat Cummins batted brilliantly, remaining unbeaten on 44 off 73 balls and scoring the winning runs, with Alex Carey scoring 20  and Nathan Lyon staying unbeaten on 16, also contributing to the visitors’ historic victory. Following England’s defeat, captain Ben Stokes caught a lot of criticism on social media for declaring their first innings prematurely on the first day of the Test. The side declared on 393/8, inviting Australia to bat for about 20 minutes on Day 1. Many supporters and fans were shocked by the bold declaration, but Stokes has since justified the move, claiming that England intended to “pounce” on Australia.

I saw declaration as an opportunity to pounce on Australia: Ben Stokes

Stokes after the match said, “I saw (the declaration) as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. No one likes to go out for 20 minutes at the back end of a day. Scoring 390 and then being able to declare sends a message to Australia about how we want to take them on.” “If we didn’t declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end? I’m not 100 per cent sure but I’m not going to be looking back at this game as what ifs. We just didn’t manage to get over the line.”

The English captain further added that there were moments when the circumstances could have been a little different for the Three Lions. He then added, “I mean, look, you play cricket over five days. There’s so many things that goes on that you could look back at, you know, sort of 20 individual moments, which you could go like, ‘oh, if that happened, if that went our way could this game have been different?’ But, you know, I don’t like to look at things like that.”

Here’s how fans have reacted to Stokes comments

https://twitter.com/msdian_kuldeep/status/1671233817984782336?s=20

Bollocks what else will he say..
RIP #Bazball , Root playing that crappie reverse sweep was the final nail

— Stevie Glee (@RushAdren) June 20, 2023

Yea, so Ben and Baz shud no who to play this stupid form of Cricket against and who not to..

— Stevie Glee (@RushAdren) June 20, 2023

They were winning at one point despite the deceleration on the first day LOL 😂

— Letsgobabysuu (@letsgoobabyyy) June 20, 2023

Since 2019: eng 2 cups (odi wc 2019, T20 wc 2022), nz 1 cup (wtc final 2021), aus 2 cups (2021 wc T20, wtc final 2023)

Brown Men Board = Bad People = Perfomance hyped and rolling over emotions of massive brown crowd of populous countries

Extensively chokers.

— ً (@testbotv26) June 20, 2023

Required the umpires to win them the wc 2019 lol

— Chikoo halwa khaega kya (@chikoohalwa) June 21, 2023

It was touch & go. A few decisions make a match worthy of witnessing.

— Bhargav Mitra (@bhargav_mitra) June 20, 2023

Not first day

It's they bowling in last session which put them on opposite side

54 runs the fir bhi out na kar paye Lyon and Cummins ko 🤣

— DRP 🇮🇳 (@its_DRP) June 20, 2023