England vs New Zealand: Ben Stokes' retirement prompts chaotic finish to day four

0:01Yeah, gone! Gone! He gets his fairytale ending! An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit of First Time win is the most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final Test wicket for Stuart Ball. It's India who will win the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope.

0:36Okay, hello and welcome. It's the day four review from the third and final test match between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge. And I think it's fair to say all of us here are a little bit befuddled and bewildered. It has been an extraordinary day's test match cricket. New Zealand battled, and I mean battled, their way through to a lead of 372, courtesy of Ratcham Revinger's 94 and Daryl Mitchell's 100. At one point, Daryl Mitchell made 16 runs in a session between lunch and tea and was hit on virtually every part of his body, had to change helmets twice, etc. But that's not the story of the day.

1:16There's only one story in town that I'm going to ask Messrs. Sangakara and Kartik to talk about, and that is the news that Ben Stokes at 3.25pm this afternoon announced that he was going to be standing down as captain and retiring from international cricket. And from pretty much that moment on, gents, everything has gone completely bonkers. Fair? Yeah. I think it's been that kind of... What I've seen is pretty much inexplicable. I don't know how to put it into words because at 3.20 we got a little bit of news saying you might be hearing something interesting and eventually got to that and that shocked you first and then as the cricketing gods would have it he bowled the next ball immediately after it was announced and he got a wicket of it.

2:04That was the good happy moment there after that everything was different because Terrell Mitchell went on to get his hundred England went into bat and then you see Ben Stokes and Ben Duckett opening. I don't know if that was part of the plan it didn't look like it because as he was walking away he spoke to Emilio Gay. I have a feeling that's when Emilio Gay knew himself and just the kind of cricket they played afterwards. Kumar you've played more than 100 tests please explain. Yeah it's absolutely right Ben Stokes ran didn't he? Emilio Gay and Ben Duckett as would usually happen New Zealand declared second innings at 288 for nine with that lead of 372 and normally the openers would run up to the dressing room only got 10 minute turnaround, straight up into the dressing room, go and get their pads on.

2:51Emilio Gay started to run off after Ben Duckett. Ben Stokes ran to him and went, no, it's my show. Yeah, so it's not pre-planned. No. And I don't want to go backwards, but I think I have to. I mean, Ben Stokes, when he came back, said one of the things that he really regrets was that after the incident, after the launch test, he said, what happened really took the focus off the cricket that was played there and that the debutantes and there was so much attention and not enough appreciation for that what was on the ground and then with his announcement and then of course him opening the focus has shifted from everything again right into the center of of ben stokes now ben stokes retiring yes he has to be appreciated it's huge news he's He's been a brilliant cricketer for England, a brilliant leader captain.

3:45But then you see Emilio Gay, you know, where does he fit in now? What's the message given to him? He's been put down from opening. He hasn't really come at three. Bethel comes, leaves the ball. Brook comes in, a few brilliant shots, and then kind of a flop two, three down. Root comes in. Emilio Gay keeps going back behind the line. So I just don't know. I think it seems really chaotic. I mean, Root has brought some semblance of sanity there by coming in and batting as Root does, but even then he had a reverse sweep. So I... Joao Root came in at five. At five. And then it's almost like they're just playing on emotion, on instinct and saying, we're just going to do this our way, irrespective of what happens to the match, what is expected of us, smart cricket.

4:31No, forget it. We're just going to play our way and this is how we're going to play. And that was made up in that instant and then communicated to everyone else in that 10 minute break. How I look at it is, it's almost their way of saying this is one last hurrah for basketball. We started this way where we wanted to entertain, you know, make sure you guys had fun watching it. Leave the results aside, this is how we want to play. And they're ending it in a way they're saying, don't worry about this, we're just going to go out there and have a lot of fun playing a lot of shots. And you guys come along for the ride now.

5:02You can ask a lot of questions about that, But the fact is that it feels like that's what they're kind of looking to do. Because there was a lot happening on the pitch at the start of the day. But it almost felt like it settled down. Not too much. Yes, a lot of them got injured. Some of their bowlers, you've got to understand, New Zealand is literally playing with two bowlers. You know, Willow Rook got injured while bowling. Ben Sears got hammered on the fingers while batting. So they're bowling with two bowlers, two pacers. I don't think a lot of cricketing and… Oh, my goodness. Well, as we speak, Ben Sears, who was who actually was retired hurt while he was batting from being struck on a finger that we think he's already fractured he retired her left the ground moments later Willow Rourke was was dismissed so he then came back on and made sure that Mitchell to get could get through to his hundred he has now come on for his first over so actually they have three fit seamers now and has caused the ball to jump violently at Ben Duckett and was caught very sharply by Daryl Mitchell at slip.

6:01So England are now four down. So can I, sorry, just can I just interject, sorry. I mean, you saw Daryl Mitchell take that catch. A bowler hammered on the finger, cut open his finger, bowling who's just come on injured. As DK said, there's two bowlers injured outside. There's Blundell taking blow after blow, standing up to the stumps. Daryl Mitchell scored an incredibly good hundred. Where's the appreciation for New Zealand in all of this? Are they forgotten? Also, Rance, what is it? I mean, they're playing with a depleted bowling attack into the game, depleted bowling attack further. They've done brilliantly well to hold a very strong England side, as we see Emilio Gay coming in at six, our regular opener.

6:43It's just too chaotic for me to really grasp, even if it's the last two rounds for basketball, whatever you want to call it. Even then, basketball had some order in that chaos, right? Well, I mean, let's talk about it from that point of view. New Zealand have been hard-nosed, they've been tough, they've been professional, and they will fully deserve the win that they are going to get, not only in this Test match, but in the series. It'll be the fourth time, as I mentioned before, the fourth time that they've beaten England away from home, the first being in 1986, the next being famously in 1999.

7:15They won a two-match series in 2021, and it looks as though they're going to turn England over again here, which will mean, you know, having lost the Ashes 4-1, They lost the last test match of the India series. So that's five test matches out of six there. They now look like they're going to lose this one as well. So you've ended up losing seven out of nine. The whole the whole project, not just Ben Stokes retiring, but of course, McCollum, Rob Key above him. All of the questions are going to be asked again, as they were at the end of the ashes, as to the fitness of the entire organization to continue in its current form.

7:54definitely no gloss being taken off this from New Zealand's point of view but the extraordinary thing is and you mentioned Basboul Kumar is that when when chasing down 380 against India or 370 or 300 against New Zealand they still stuck with the same order you know Ben Stokes might come and finish the thing off at the back end after good starts from Crawley and Duckett for example but they didn't turn the entire thing upside down and try and attempt to chase down what is an incredibly stiff target on this pitch in the hour and 20 minutes that they had to bat before the change of innings and the end of day four.

8:33We've got an entire day's cricket tomorrow. The tickets are free. People would have loved to have come and seen Ben Stokes for the last time tomorrow or Harry Brook. Harry Brook is out. Ben Duckett is out. It's just that the whole thing is starting to look unbelievably shambolic. Agreed? I mean, imagine this, right? And to your point, but you're talking about this as well. Imagine Emilio Gay and Dakar opening, Dakar does his thing and he batted beautifully even now, got a good delivery. Emilio Gay buckles down and he starts with a reverse sweep as well. So it's very interesting. It's even, I'm sorry, but But imagine if they've got to, let's say, 150 for two or three tomorrow.

9:16Yeah, by lunchtime tomorrow. Stokes comes in, plays whichever way he wants to, gets a 50, 60, 70. Suddenly, you're within striking distance of a famous chase, right? This, like you said, basketball seemed a little bit frenetic, but I would say really chaotic. This has been chaos. It defies all explanation. And it takes the gloss of the retirement of a champion, in that sense, of a cricketer, in Ben Stokes, to me. Look, you know, I've got nothing. I'm just amazed. You know, I enjoyed the way they started as a regime because they played in a very positive manner. The previous regime, if you can call it that, they really struggled.

10:04The results were not going their way. They brought in a change with the attitude of how they batted, their attitude towards bowling. And there was some aura about if you want to play England, be careful because we will chase down anything in the fourth inning. I really enjoyed that. And they did it consistently. Now, not all results went their way. I think their results were big probably in Pakistan and a couple of other series. A lot of series were drawn. But it was feeling like they had a method to their madness. But today it didn't feel like that. It just felt like it was all about them trying to play a few shots.

10:31But what's the hurry? I mean, you're chasing 373 on a fifth day pitch. It's not going to be easy. The character of test cricket is shown in how you're able to fight through and stay till the last day. That wasn't there. I mean, you had that incredible shift as you said of mindset, attacking. You know, we can be more attacking, more open, free our minds up in test cricket, more opportunities to score, let's take advantage of the field gaps and the field spreads. And that was great. Then they had, then there was talk about, okay, we've done that. Now, now let's get smarter. Let's move the needle to where we are playing really attacking brave cricket, but we're tempering it when it's needed with smartness.

11:06And that was what I thought they were trying to achieve. So you have this incredibly fearless side that's not afraid when the situation calls for it to do things again differently. And I'll stop there because I just don't know how to explain the rest. No, I'm completely with you. I mean, we will hear from Ben Stokes at the end of the day's play after we've done the review. So we'll be able, perhaps, to get more of an idea as to what has precipitated this decision, why he decided to do it in the middle of a session, in the middle of a day's play of a test match, why he took the decision, it appears, unilaterally, to go out and open the batting and basically have a swing from ball one.

11:53But for now, I guess what we're left with at the end of day four is the knowledge that we will not see Ben Stokes out there in action again. which I think for cricket fans, not only in England, but around the world, is a sad day. And we're also left with the fact that New Zealand, on two, what I would say, excellent test match pitches, the one at the Oval and this one here at Trent Bridge, which has been affected by the extreme heat that we've had in the first two days of the test matches, have been beaten by a side who was willing to do the hard yards and did it better than England anyway, regardless of how things have ended up.

12:32So day four has come to a close. England are four down in what looks like a fruitless pursuit of 372. Ben Stokes is out, so is Ben Duckett. So is Harry Brook, who came out and hit his first ball for six, next ball for four and then scoop one down to fine leg to end up out. And the hero of the day, actually, if you remove Ben Stokes from the story altogether, is walking off the field now as we speak, Daryl Mitchell. Let's have a word about that innings because he had to show incredible guts and patience. I'm happy you brought that question to me because I was in awe of what he was doing purely because it was such an old school innings in terms of how he went about it.

13:13At times I felt, could he have pushed it a little bit more? But it looked like he did it perfectly. He was taking body blows after body blows. Because he got hit here, he got hit on his chest, he got hit on his tummy, he got hit on his elbow. One in the face. Two in the face. One in the face and he changed two helmets. But through it all, he fought it out there. He had a plan which said, I'm going to play straight down the line. If anything, I'm willing to take the blow. But I'm not going to give my wicket away easily, which is the bedrock of test cricket batting. And, you know, credit to him, kudos to him.

13:43You must say New Zealand have been the hungrier team to win this test match. A lot of distractions, isn't there? I mean, you mentioned it already in terms of the effect of the rest of the team. But Ben Stokes, the ECB put out a little video clip of Ben Stokes in the dressing room. He told the players this morning before play started. And Jacob Bethel, very young man, highly promising young player, was sat next to him. And could you just see the blood drain from his face? It was like an absolute shock. And he looked very, very disappointed. He did. He looked shocked. He looked upset. And even when he came into bat, I'm not sure whether that was still in his head.

14:24You know, he would have enjoyed playing under Ben Stokes. And in his mind, he would be, what do I do now to give some, you know, contribution to this last hurrah? But, you know, at the end of the day, you can strip everything else away. This man here, Ben Stokes, has been brilliant for England. He's a brilliant captain. He's been a brilliant leader for the while that he lasted. He changed a lot in terms of attitude to England, in the England side from where it was to now. He's been an incredible match-winning player who didn't really back away from getting down and dirty and fighting and really doing things for the team and asking the team for things that he would also do himself.

15:15He led by example and I think he would be sorely, sorely missed. I think he leaves a very, very strong and inspiring legacy. And I think you can't ask for much more from Stokes than what he's contributed to England. His bowling spell today tells you everything about him, isn't it? Almost unchanged from lunch to two. He was at it, gave it everything he had and he's done it one too many times. He does it like a lone warrior when the pressure is on. Be it the 2019 World Cup, the 2022 World Cup. Heading lead test. I remember playing test against him in Birmingham which is exactly what he did. Just pulled unchanged and got Virat Kohli's wicket at the crucial juncture.

15:54And he's done it one too many times and I think he retires as in terms pure statistically the second most successful all-rounder. He's got just a little bit of wickets under Jack Carlis and runs, but what a record to have. Two goosebumps moments, isn't it? The applause from the crowd when he started his spell. Then the whole crowd just rising and together applauding, shouting out his name when they read the statement. Ben Stokes is retiring. They heard it in their ear pierces or whatever. It just seemed to spread around the ground all at the same moment, didn't it? And at that very moment, Stokes running in, gets the wicket.

16:29Brooke takes the catch. He's off running. I mean, those were my favourite moments of this Test match. I was asked to do my favourite moment of the Test match a couple of days ago. I said, it's a return of Ben Stokes. And never expected it to end in this Test match. But all careers come to an end. I think the man deserves a lot of credit, a lot of appreciation and a lot of love. Yeah, I think that's a pretty good way to end it. We'll find out more. I'm sure there is intrigue and more stories will come up about his reasons as to why that He's decided to stand down at this moment. It's certainly going to be a difficult time for English cricket once again.

17:06How many times have we said that over the last couple of weeks? But for now, England require a notional 270 to win tomorrow. Joe Root is still there. Tickets are free at Trent Bridge. And New Zealand needs six wickets to wrap up the Test match and the series. No doubt we'll be speaking to you again then.