ENG vs WI | It was no good walking away with a draw in Manchester Test, admits Ben Stokes

The West Indies gained quite the momentum in the series through their four-wicket win at Southampton, but the return of Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes’ firing performance in Machester led to England levelling the series 1-1. England won the Test by 113 runs and a major reason for the same was Ben Stokes, who scored a match-defining 176 in the 1st innings, smashed an unbeaten 78 off 57 in the third innings, while opening for England and helped his team accumulate 129 runs in just 19 overs after rain washed out the third day. 

"[Injuries?] I'm fine. The body started to get quite stiff. I said to Broady that I was feeling quite stiff, what do you reckon, and he said stop. [Long spells?] I'll give everything to the team, whatever's asked of me. We've found a method within our attack to be aggressive when things aren't happening. It dries it up, the batsmen don't have anywhere to go. I'll always do whatever's asked of me. In the first innings it just came about, with us having success with that in the past we can resort to it quite quick. It gets batsmen out of their comfort zone when you have six balls banged into the wicket. I'd say we're quite successful with it,” said Stokes while receiving the Man of the Match award, reported ESPN Cricinfo.

Stokes, who also bagged three wickets in the game, explained that his role was quite different across the two innings that he played. He also added that, given the kind of performance that England delivered, there was no other way that they would’ve wanted the second Test to end.

"[Which innings more fun?] Completely different roles. [3rd inns] was pretty simple, we had to score as many as we could, but scoring 90 off 11 overs gave us that edge in the game, dangled the carrot a little bit. A lot of credit to the bowlers' spells with the new ball yesterday. There were a few conversations going on out there [w/ batting order], it was a real positive move. It was no good walking away with a draw from this Test match. I texted Neil Fairbrother [his agent] the other day saying when he first saw me play he'd never have thought I'd last 300 balls [in an innings]."