Test Cricket has been wrapped with some enigmatic beauties which always leaves the fans in total thrall of this age-old format that draws on for a tedious 5 days. A couple of such examples of glittering wonders in Test cricket were showcased in the last couple of editions of Ashes where Mitchell Starc produced an absolute ripper to dismantle the stumps of James Vince and Ben Stokes played out a relentless knock to deny Australia an easy victory even in the most trying circumstances.
These facts were however already down in history and what was new to enthral the fans of world cricket was a fiery screamer from Barbadian fast bowler Kemar Roach that left the legendary Ben Stokes absolutely bamboozled in the ongoing third Test between England and West Indies.
With the series locked at 1-1 after two tests, England chose to bat first on the first day of the third test. The English outfit found themselves wobbling after two early blows that removed Dom Sibley and Joe Root. Stokes and Rory Burns started with the initial repairs and traipsed for a considerable span of time before Roach produced an extraterrestrial wonder.
After probing Stokes with a couple of nasty short balls, one of which rattled the Englishman’s helmet, Roach rolled over his fingers in the most magical ways one can ever imagine.
The next ball bowled by Roach was a scorching in-swinger that flew through the defences of Ben Stokes and deracinated the stumps. In fact, such was the magnificence of the delivery that even Stokes was rooted to the crease for a few seconds in utter incredulity until it dawned on that the master-class from the Barbadian has claimed his wicket.
Ollie Pope and Rory Burns continued with minimal resistance against the brilliant Caribbean side only to weather nastier deliveries smacking them all over the body.
Cricket specialist, Madhav Sharma tweeted with another ripper, underlining the beauty of this delivery, citing, “WHAT A BALL. Big Ben was totally clueless there. #ENGvWi
https://twitter.com/HashTagCricket/status/1286654917587869696
