Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 19 (ANI): England’s Ben Stokes feels there is a silver lining in losing the fourth T20I against India and going into the series decider as the pressure situations will benefit them going into the T20 World Cup, to be played later this year.
A blistering half-century from Suryakumar Yadav, followed by a brilliant performance from the bowlers, helped India win the fourth T20I of the ongoing five-match series against England here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday evening.
With the eight-run win over England, India levelled the series 2-2 with the series decider to be played on Saturday at the same venue.
“In an ideal world, we would have loved to have gone into the next game, having already won the series. It sounds weird saying that we got a positive out of losing. We go into the next game with a huge amount of pressure on our shoulders as a team, because whoever wins that game, wins the series,” Stokes said in the post-match press conference.
“That’s great for us as a team, especially with a T20 World Cup coming up because the more pressure situations we get put into as a team, the more I think we’ll benefit from it. It is a final because if we don’t win then we lose a series and we don’t want to lose series, we want to win and we want to make a habit of winning them. The more situations we get put into where we’ve got pressure on us and we keep prevailing, that’s just going to do us good,” he added.
In the match, Stokes played a knock of 46 runs from just 23 balls. When Stokes was at the crease, it looked like England will chase down the target. However, Shardul Thakur brought the hosts back in the game as he scalped two crucial wickets of Stokes and Morgan on successive balls in the 16th over.
“It’s always frustrating getting out, and even more when you feel like you’ve got the game in your hands. You’ve got to look at these things and assess them and learn from them. We’ve got the T20 World Cup coming up and we will be put in a similar position at some point in the tournament. These are all great learning experiences,” Stokes said. (ANI)