Watch: Ben Stokes' startling reaction to Jamie Smith's monstrous out-of-the-ground six goes viral

England skipper Ben Stokes had an entertaining day of Test cricket at Edgbaston on Saturday. He walked out to bat with his team in trouble with five down.

Stokes added a 115-run stand with Joe Root (87) to bring his team back into the game. England were tottering at 54/5 when Stokes joined hands with Root.

The two experienced batters first weathered the storm of the Windies bowlers and slowly stitched a partnership that got them out of trouble. Stokes was dismissed with the team score of 169. That started a slump again in the batting lineup with Root soon being dismissed for 87.

Root was dismissed with the team score of 231/4 and since then young keeper-batter Jamie Smith and Chris Woakes have stitched an unbeaten stand. Smith eventually went past his fifty hitting six fours and one six in his innings.

The only six he has hit so far in his innings was against Alzarri Joseph. Joseph banged the ball in short and Smith pulled it over deep mid-on. The shot was so well-timed that it eventually went over the stadium. Smith's shot brought about an amazing reaction from Ben Stokes. He was amazed by how well he had timed the shot.

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Speaking about the second Test, West Indies after being put into bat first were bowled out for 282. They had a slump after a good opening stand of 76 between Kraigg Brathwaite and Mikyle Louis. There was a slump in the middle-order and the lower-order scored some crucial runs with Jason Holder (59) and Joshua de Silva (49).

England lost three early wickets with Root and Stokes bringing them back into the game. Root continued his form with the bat. In his knock of 87 runs, he went past Brian Lara's tally of 11953 runs. He ended on 11998 runs. He is now closing in on Kumar Sangakkara (12400) and Alastair Cook (12472).

Root also fell 13 short of his 33rd test ton which would have brought him on pat with Cook's tally of 33 Test tons for England the most. Joe Root is 33 years old and can certainly challenge to overscore Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 15921 runs. He is trailing by some 3000 runs and with the Ashes series coming up, England's premier Test batter is expected to be at his best.

Root is already leading the run-scoring charts this series with 291 runs this series after the knock of 87 at Edgbaston. He already scored a century in the second innings of the Trent Bridge Test match. Gus Atkinson is leading the wicket-taking tally with 20 wickets in the series so far.

Root is keenly looking forward to the Ashes 2025 series. England levelled the Test series coming from behind to level it 2-2. The former England skipper lies central to his team's success. Root was the skipper of England when England traveled to Australia in their last Ashes series in 2020/21. In hindsight now, he thinks that the side should not have toured Australia for the series during the testing times of Covid.

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