In the second Test match of the Ashes Series 2023, England lost to Australia by 43 runs. It is the second consecutive loss of the hosts in this prestigious series. However, even after the loss, everyone is praising the heroic innings of England captain Ben Stokes who scored 155 runs in 214 balls with the help of nine fours and nine sixes. Stokes fought for him from one side but the lack of support from other batters cost the second loss to the English team.
As Stokes is receiving warm words from everyone, Indian wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul also could not control himself to appreciate the brilliant effort of Stokes. While appreciating the English captain on his official Instagram story Rahul marked him as a legend. KL Rahul wrote -“Legend” while tagging the player in his story.
At one time it seemed that match would go in the favor of the hosts but the controversial appeal by the Aussies and the decision of the third umpire for Jonny Bairstow took the game away from England. Apart from Stokes, Ben Duckett was the only one who gave a strong reply to the Australian bowlers and scored 83 runs.
In this match, England won the toss and opted to bowl first. While batting first Australia put on a score of 416 runs in their first innings thanks to the brilliant hundred of Steve Smith(110). England was then bundled out for 325 runs in their first innings and Duckett(98) missed his well-deserved century by just two runs.
In the second innings, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja once again came to the rescue and got 279 runs and gave a target of 371 runs to England.
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For his brilliant century, Steve Smith received the Man Of The Match award. It was the 8th man of the match award for Smith in Test cricket against England.
