Ben Stokes brushes off altercation with Shannon Gabriel

The first day of the second Test match between England and West Indies at Headingley, on Friday saw a marked improvement in the Windies bowling attack as well as a historic feat of 12 consecutive innings from Joe Root with scores of 50 or more runs. Along with all the cricketing action, a few heated words were also sent flying back and forth between West Indies bowler, Shannon Gabriel and English batsman, Ben Stokes. The all-rounder, on his part, accumulated a well-constructed century, before being dismissed by Gabriel off a delivery that possessed an extra bit of bounce.

Stokes had previously been dropped off a delivery from Kemar Roach when he was on 98, and it was Gabriel who had missed the dolly of a catch at mid-on. Soon after, the centurion was caught behind off Gabriel’s bowling and the latter didn’t miss out on giving him an animated send-off. The aggressive southpaw, however, chose to play down the exchange of words that took place and brushed it off saying, “It’s not the first time”.

Stokes’ takes the heated exchange with Gabriel in good humour

When asked about the altercation after the end of the day’s play Stokes said, “It comes along with the game. There’s nothing to it. He’s got me out. It’s international sport and you all try and do well, so emotions can come out.” He also gathered that Gabriel was “probably still a little bit annoyed with himself” after the dropped catch. Talking about the risky shot that he’d chosen to play at a score of 98, he admitted, “It was a brain fart, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking. But to do well you need luck every now and then. You get dropped, you put it to the back of your mind, on another day they hold it and you’re walking off.”

With Stokes scoring 100 and Joe Root putting together a gritty knock of 59, England ended the first innings with a score of 258, which was proof enough of the improvement the pace battery of Windies has undergone after their crushing defeat to the hosts, in the first Test at Edgbaston. West Indies made a remarkable comeback in the game to first bowl out the hosts for 258 and replied strongly to take over a 100-run first innings lead.