The Prague Post - Frustrated Stokes refuses to blame Brook for England collapse

The five-match series finished 2-2 after India sealed a dramatic six-run win on Monday, with paceman Mohammed Siraj taking three of the four wickets to fall on the final morning.

England, chasing a daunting 374 runs to win, had been cruising at 301-3 on Sunday, with Brook and Joe Root at the crease.

But they buckled under pressure and lost their last seven wickets for 66 runs.

"It's been toe-to-toe pretty much for 25 days," said England captain Stokes, who missed the Oval game with a shoulder injury.

"You know, two teams, two very good teams who have thrown everything at each other, left nothing out there.

"From a cricket fan's point of view 2-2 is probably fair. Obviously, we're disappointed now to have not got the result that we wanted to give us a series win."

England appeared home and dry on Sunday with Brook (111) and Root (105) at the crease.

But their late stumble started when Brook, who had changed the tone of the match with his aggressive batting, chipped a bizarre catch to mid-off as he launched his bat in the opposite direction.

England lost further wickets late on Sunday, including that of Root, as the tension rose before bad light and rain curtailed play with the result on a knife edge.

- Brook dismissal -

England returned on Monday needing just 35 runs to win the series 3-1 with four wickets in hand but ultimately fell just short.

But Stokes defended the 26-year-old Brook, who scored 481 runs in the series, including two centuries.

His ton on Sunday came off just 91 balls with 12 fours and two sixes.

"Harry got us into that position by playing a particular way, putting the Indian bowlers under immense pressure to take them away from being able to consistently bowl in the areas that they wanted to bowl," said Stokes.

"I'm sure everyone was applauding him when he brought up his hundred in the way that he did. Some of the shots he played were unbelievable."

The skipper admitted six dropped catches in India's second innings had ultimately proved costly.

"But you can go over so many moments in a five-day Test match and all the time you spend out in the field and say, 'If this had been slightly different, we could have been in a slightly different situation'," he said.

"No one means to drop catches, obviously. But I think if we look back on that, you could say that those chances that we did put down did cost us.

"Back to Headingley (first Test), when we chased down those runs, India dropped quite a few chances off us, and that probably contributed to us winning."

Stokes said his team were in a "strong place" ahead of a bid to regain the Ashes in Australia, with that Test series starting in November.

"We have got some lads who are members of this team who have got some other responsibilities to fulfil with the Hundred and one-day international series," he said.

"I don't have to concentrate on that. We fly out in November, so we have got a lot of time between now and then to build on all the kind of things we have been speaking about before the series started."

Z.Pavlik--TPP