IND vs ENG | Twitter reacts to stunned England players after Stokes bowls centurion Rohit with first ball in nine months

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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There are match winners, X-factors, players that operate in a realm beyond the sport's natural laws to manifest miracles out of thin air, and then there's Ben Stokes. The England skipper got rid of his counterpart with his first ball since June 2023 to leave his teammates with heads in their hands.

India grabbed the game by the jugular on Day 2 in Dharamsala as the overnight pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill ran the English bowlers ragged to bring up their respective centuries before Lunch and take India past England's total of 218 with nine wickets still in hand. With the visitors reeking in desperation, skipper Ben Stokes concurred their only hope of scripting a miraculous comeback was to take matters into his own hands. The all-rounder, having undergone knee surgery to rid himself of a chronic issue ahead of the tour, took his jumper off after the 40-minute break and marked his run-up in a professional game for the first time since the second Ashes Test last summer where he had sent down 15 overs with some discomfort. Magical scenes ensued.

The right-arm medium pacer steamed in with purpose and angled the red cherry slightly back of a length on off stump, forcing Rohit onto the backfoot. The SG straightened the tiniest bit after pitching to beat the outside edge and send the stumps cartwheeling. While Stokes himself had the look of a man who had completed a routine task in his 9 to 5 desk job, coach Brendon McCullum and opener Zak Crawley had to cover their wide agape mouths with their palms while Mark Wood's both hands shot to his head along with the widest grin on his face. All the other players on the field were plastered with a similarly awestruck expression, in complete contrast to the gloom that had enveloped their demeanor throughout the rest of the day.

Twitterati was quick to ask the sporting Gods who was writing the utter fantastical scripts for Ben Stokes' career that simply continues to give.

1st ball after 251 days and....

Wow

Unbelievable

Crazy

Magic

Absolutely

True

Hype man

Yes!!

Brilliant!

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