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England Test captain Ben Stokes plays down fitness concerns ahead of Asham


London [UK]June 4 (ANI): England Test captain Ben Stokes has dismissed fitness concerns ahead of The Ashes against Australia, insisting his long-standing knee injury is “nothing to worry about”. catch the third day of the Lord’s Test against Ireland, a game England won by 10 wickets with more than a day to spare for their 11th triumph in 13 games.

The England skipper was in obvious discomfort after being caught by Curtis Kaempfer at short fine leg, though he limped to the ground for the rest of the innings. Stokes has been dealing with knee problems, most recently during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Stokes did not score in the match but bowled a few deliveries in the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s game, which could be a boost for England with the first Test against Australia less than two weeks away.

Stokes was ready to brush aside any concerns over the threat of injury in the Ireland game.

“I landed pretty awkwardly. My weight went on the inside of the knee, I twisted it a lot. It was one of those things, but I’m 32 tomorrow, so that probably explains it. I was bowling this morning, first time back from [the IPL] and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Nothing to worry about,” Skysports quoted Stokes as saying.

Stokes’ impact with the ball was limited during the drawn Test series in New Zealand in February, with the skipper taking just nine overs in two games.

Coming in for the one-off Test match against Ireland, pacer Josh Tong took five wickets on his Test debut as hosts England cruised to an easy victory over a spirited Irish side on Day 3 of the one-off Test match at Lord’s on Saturday.

After Ollie Pope (205 off 208 balls) and Ben Duckett (182 off 178 balls) guided England to a mammoth total of 524/4 declared on Day 2, Ireland needed a big effort to avoid an innings defeat. Ireland were all out for 172 in the first innings with efforts from James McCollum (36), Paul Stirling (30) and Curtis Kaempfer (33). Stuart Broad took five wickets and finished with figures of 5/51. After England passed 500 in the second innings, they took a lead of 352 runs.

In Ireland’s second innings, when they needed to overcome that giant lead, Tong took out four of his top five batsmen to reduce the visitors to 126/4. Harry Tector led the charge with a half-century, knocking out 51 off 98 balls, but the real aggression came from the lower order.

Mark Adair and Andy McBrien stifled England’s attack for more than a session, setting up Ireland’s highest partnership in Test cricket to fight back late on.

The duo took Ireland from 162/6 to 325 before Adair fell 12 runs short of a century. Matthew Potts broke a menacing partnership to end Adair’s thrilling 76-ball 88 before Tong completed his five-wicket haul with the wicket of Fionn Hand.

McBrien remained unbeaten on 86 as Ireland finished on 362/9 with opener James McCollum out injured and unable to bat.

Zac Crowley (12) went on to smash three fours in four balls to ease England to a win as they started their summer on a positive note despite the injury cloud surrounding the fast-hitters that descended on them just before the Test match.

England are less than two weeks away from the first Ashes Test of the next ICC Test World Cup cycle in Birmingham. They also named a strong 16-man squad for the first two Tests of the series earlier in the day. (ANI)

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