Following 1-run defeat against New Zealand in the second Test, England captain Ben Stokes remained defiant with his decision to enforce follow on and explained why he did it.
Ben Stokes joined the list of fellow captains in the history of cricket including, Steve Waugh (2001), Kim Hughes (1981) and Jack Blakham (1894) who taste a bitter defeat after implementing follow on.
In the post-match conference England’s captain Ben Stokes said, “You look back to that point, and in the three innings before, we managed to rip through their top order. In Mount Manganui twice and here as well. We said early on, before we took the field that day that if we have the opportunity to enforce the follow-on, we will do it. And I knew that New Zealand would have to play pretty much the perfect game to win this game.”
“But even then, bowling them out and having to chase 250 was always our game to lose. And you’ve got to give credit to New Zealand not only for the way they played to get 250 runs on the board but also to the way they bowled. Teams are allowed to be better than us. You can hold up your hand and say that, this week when it came to the crucial moments, New Zealand were ahead of us. And we’re absolutely fine with all the decision-making, I’ll stand by it.
I know that with Jimmy, Broady with the ball, teams have to play incredibly well and New Zealand managed to do it,” he added.
Following the post-match conference he further explained on why he took the follow on decision, he said, “The conditions were overcast, the wicket was still doing plenty. If it’s a pretty flat wicket and we find ourselves in that situation again, obviously I have to think about that.
But I thought, thinking back to the way in which we ran through the New Zealand top order in three previous innings… I thought it was
the right decision.”
