Hyderabad, India

England secured a famous win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday (Jan 28) as they beat India by 28 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series. Ben Stokes, who took over the captaincy reigns in June 2022 from Joe Root termed the Hyderabad Test win as the greatest triumph in his tenure. England despite trailing by 190 runs after the first innings won the match condemning the Indian side to a catastrophic defeat.

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Stokes calls Hyderabad win greatest triumph in his captaincy

"Since I've taken the captaincy on, we've had a lot of fantastic moments as a team," Stokes said. "We've had a lot of great victories, we've been involved in some amazing games. But I think [with] where we are and who we're playing against, this victory is 100%, definitely our greatest triumph since I've been captain."

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Leading by 190 runs after the first innings, England’s master class led by Ollie Pope saw them register an emphatic 28-run win at the Rajiv Gandhi International. After bowling out England for 246, India scored 436 runs and established a 190-run lead.

However, Pope’s 196-run knock helped England post a lead of 230 runs which proved to be the difference-maker. Chasing 231, India were bowled out for 202 with Tom Hartley scalping seven wickets.

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"The gameplan there is, we're out here for a long tour and this is going to be a long game, so I was willing to give him the longer spell regardless of what had happened because I knew I was going to have to turn back to him at some point throughout this Test match," Stokes said.

After the defeat India slipped to the fifth spot from the second and have two wins and two defeats along with a draw in their five matches of the WTC cycle. India have a win percentage of 43.33 and still have four matches remaining to play in the five-match Test series. England are eighth with a win percentage of 29.16 from six matches. So far they have won three matches, lost two and drawn one match.