Ricky Ponting Gives Ben Stokes The Ultimate Compliment By Comparing Him With India Legend

Ben Stokes once again proved his immense match-winning ability by playing a stunning knock in the second Ashes Test between England and Australia at Lord’s.

While he could not take England over the line in the game, his knock was enough to put them on the verge of registering a miraculous win. Chasing a Lord’s record total of 371 runs, England were reeling at 45 for 4 when Stokes came out to bat. The chances of even challenging Australia were looking slim for England.

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The departure of Ben Duckett and Jonny Bairstow even before England could touch the 200-run mark further hampered their chances. But Stokes launched a stunning counterattack and completely turned the game on its head in a matter of few overs.

The England skipper almost single-handedly took his side over the line with his knock but fell just agonizingly short. His 155-run knock was studded with 9 fours and as many sixes as he took Australia to the cleaners. England eventually lost the game by 43 runs.

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Ricky Ponting compares Ben Stokes with an Indian legend:

Following Ben Stokes’ stunning knock at Lord’s, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has given him the ultimate compliment. The World Cup-winning captain has compared Stokes with MS Dhoni, widely regarded as the best finisher in the history of cricket. Heaping praise on Stokes, Ponting stated that the England allrounder handles pressure better than most of his current contemporaries.

“I thought and everyone probably thought he could do it again because we’ve seen it happen before, but this was probably, slightly more runs that they were chasing (in 2019),” Ponting told ICC as he recalled Stokes’ iconic 135-run knock against Australia at the Headingley Test in 2019.

“In the back of the back of everyone’s minds, I think once it started playing out the way that it was and how many similarities there were to Headingley in 2019…Steve Smith dropped him…and he was dropped on 116 by Marcus Harris at Headingley. So those sort of ghosts of the past kept coming back out,” he added.

Speaking further, Ponting compared Stokes with Dhoni. The legendary cricketer also highlighted the fact that while Dhoni usually finished games in white-ball cricket, Stokes has been doing it in red-ball cricket.

“I think any international player is under pressure anytime they walk out to play, but Ben batting in the middle order or later order like he does, probably finds himself in more match-winning opportunity situations than some others might,” Ponting said.

“The first one that comes to mind is maybe someone like a Dhoni, who’s there at the end in a lot of T20 games, and finishing games, whereas Ben’s doing it at the end of Test matches, and there’s not, probably not many, many players through the history of the game that have found themselves in that sort of role and are there at the end winning games, and especially as a captain,” he added.

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