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There was a moment on the final afternoon of the Rajkot Test when Ben Stokes swapped his position at slip with Ben Duckett and moved to extra cover.With Adil Rashid bowling, the ball was being driven in that direction often and he wanted to be in the game more.A little while later, with the batsmen stealing runs to Alastair Cook at mid-on, Stokes moved the England captain out of the way and took the position.He had already been promoted to No. 4 in the batting line-up, as England searched for quick runs before the declaration, and he had proved himself Englands premier bowler of reverse swing in Bangladesh. Hell, he even bowled a few overs of off-spin in the UAE last year.Increasingly, the answer to every question that England pose is Ben Stokes. Increasingly, he resembles that super-talented bloke in the school team who opens the batting and the bowling and then keeps wicket for a bit.Now, sitting in the team hotel in Visakhapatnam (and looking so like a Van Gogh self-portrait that you fear for his ears), he laughs at the description. But he doesnt deny it.Its come from the coaches, he says. Im always getting told, when the spinner is on and the ball is looking like it is going to a certain position all the time, go there. It was the same when Pujara was hitting the ball to Cooky at mid-on, I went over there.But I think I get given the responsibility to move myself and I have more confidence to do that. Rather than before, when I thought Id look a bit arrogant if I just said swap, and its come from the coaches as well which is good. The players dont take any offence.The desire to be in the thick of the action is nothing new for Stokes. But the confidence to ask players - including the England captain - to swap positions is new and reflects Stokes new-found self-confidence and status within the side. At times this winter, he has looked Englands best batsman, best bowler and best fielder. At times this winter - and yes, these are relatively early days - its looked as if Stokes has graduated from promising to the real thing. Notwithstanding Andrew Flintoff in his pomp, England havent had a better allrounder since Ian Botham.Stokes agrees that he owes his improvement, to some extent at least, to the faith shown in him by the England management. In particular, he credits his promotion to No. 6 in the batting order as crucial.I started off decent in Australia, but after that it was pretty shit, to be honest, he says. I didnt score a run against India in three innings. But they kept on picking me and picking me and, once Paul Farbrace got me back up the order to six, it carried on from there. The more Ive played, the more confidence Ive got. The last 18 months has been the turnaround period for me.Playing on low, slow, turning wickets was, in Cooks words, probably the last challenge facing Stokes. But, after an innings of 85 in Chittagong and 128 in Rajkot, it seems he has made substantial progress. Working with Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash, he learned a method to defend against spin bowling so that he is able to soak up periods of pressure and capitalise if the bowlers tire or stray.Ive always known I can hit the big shots, he says now. But I tightened up the other things which dont come as easy: the defensive side of it and rotating the strike. I was doing sessions of not getting out, playing defensively, going forward or back no matter what the ball was. As nets progressed, I started getting into a few more attacking shots.My feet have got better. I do not get stuck on the crease as much as I used to. It still happens now and again, but Im generally getting right forward and right back. My technique against spinners has gone up a level and its good to be able to look back from a year ago and understand why I am being more successful.The century in Rajkot was, he believes, the first time he has batted for more than 200 balls in a single innings (he faced 198 for his epic 258 in Cape Town in January). While he accepts he had some luck - there were times I was laughing at myself and the amount of times the ball seemed to land in between fielders - he also hopes he has proved himself against what he calls the best team in the world and the best bowler in the world.Ravi Ashwin knows exactly where he is going to bowl every ball, Stokes says. He changes his pace and almost seems to read you. Its almost like you are telling him that youre going to run down the wicket and he bowls the ball where you dont want it to be. And Ravi Jadeja doesnt miss the area where he wants to bowl. To perform against them is a good feeling. Its the best feeling Ill have. All the work Ive done is paying off. We take confidence from it that we got 530 or whatever it was and lost only two wickets on a fourth- and fifth-day pitch. So from that point of view I think were pretty confident in the way we managed to hold off those two.The demands of batting for so long in hot conditions took their toll on Stokes. Cramp forced him off the field and, for the first portion of the India reply, he was unable to play a meaningful role with the ball. He accepts this is partially due to his difficulty in eating while he is batting - he explains that it makes him uncomfortable - and left the England support staff, in his words, trying to force-feed him.Our physio, strength-and-conditioning coach and doctor were trying to force-feed me pretty much, he says. I cant eat when Im not out, I dont know why. I literally cant eat, not even a protein shake or anything. Ive never been able to. I eat on a bowling day, definitely, just when Im not out I cant seem to eat anything.That was the reason for the cramp. Ill have to put up with a bit of cramp here and there, I think. Everyone gets it, except Cooky because he never sweats so he doesnt lose any fluid.I think this is the first time Ive realised it is tough to bat and bowl and try to back one of the skills up with the other. It doesnt really affect you in England because it is always freezing.For all the talk of giving Stokes responsibility - he was vice-captain to Jos Buttler when the ODI side played Bangladesh recently - he dismisses any suggestion that he might one day want to be captain.No, he says when asked if the responsibility appeals. You have to be boring like Cooky if you want to be captain. Im just enjoying being where I am at the moment which is having opinions valued by captains, coaches and other guys.I enjoyed being Joss right hand man. It didnt feel like I was doing anything different. The difference was Jos would have a few discussions whereas you normally see Cook and Rooty doing that or Eoin and Jos.He is frustrated, though, at Englands status as underdogs for this series, despite their improvement over the last 18 months or so - their Ashes win, their series victory in South Africa, their performance in the World T20 and an ODI series victory in Bangladesh that had proved beyond so many others of late.No matter what we have done over the last 18 months, we always seem to get underdogged, he says. But we pull something out of the bag, win and it seems a surprise to people. We are heading in the right direction in all forms of the game.Trevor Bayliss is a man of few words but one thing he complimented us on after every session in Rajkot was our attitude towards fielding. We were never switching off. We were always on it.We were not going into series thinking we were going to lose. We have taken a lot of confidence from knowing we were ahead of India pretty much the whole Test match. We have taken confidence from knowing how well we have done with bat and ball. Weve four games left and we are going to try and win all four.Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For more on Investec private banking, visit investec.co.uk/bankingDarren Woodson Jersey . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Randy White Youth Jersey . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. https://www.cowboyssportsgoods.com/Womens-Roger-Staubach-Inverted-Jersey/ . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. Demarcus Lawrence Youth Jersey . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Demarcus Lawrence Cowboys Jersey . The incident occurred at 19:56 of the second period of the Kings 4-2 road win over Edmonton on Sunday. Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum.LAS VEGAS -- Sergey Kovalev kept coming, and Andre Ward never stopped battling. With the crowd roaring in approval, they put on a fight that lived up to its advance billing.In the end, Ward won a narrow decision Saturday night to take Kovalevs light heavyweight titles in a battle between two unbeaten boxers.Ward survived a second-round knockdown and relentless pressure from Kovalev, doing just enough to win by a point on all three ringside scorecards. He remained unbeaten in his last 20 years in the ring, but it wasnt without some moments of worry.This was a beautiful thing. We did it baby, Ward said. Im a five-time world champion in two different weight classes. Man, its amazing.All three ringside judges had Ward winning 114-113. The Associated Press had Kovalev ahead 116-111.It was a fight of my life, Kovalev said. I am disappointed in the judges decision. He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight.Ward won all of the last six rounds on two scorecards, and five of six on a third. He won the final round on two of the scorecards.Kovalev knocked down Ward in the second round and chased him around the ring much of the early part of the fight. But Ward dug deep and managed to land some good punches of his own in a fight that built to a climax in the later rounds.The crowd of 13,310 at the T-Mobile Arena was on its feet in the late rounds as the two fighters went after each other, neither giving an inch. In the end, the judges favored Wards counter punching against the aggressive style of Kovalev.We were a little careless with that knockdown in the second round, said Wards trainer, Virgil Hunter. But we landed the cleaner punchesBoth fighters were unbeaten with almost identical records. Ward was 30-0 with 15 knockouts and Kovalev was 30-0-1 with 26 knockouts.It was a classic boxer versus puncher battle, and it looked like the puncher would prevail as Kovalev won the early rounds. But Ward kept punching and landed some good shots of his own in the middle rounds, and there were plenty of close rounds that could have gone either way.I knew it was going to be a tough fight -- it was the 1st time in my career I was dropped, Ward said. He did everything I expected him to do. He started to fight like I expected.Kovalevs promoter, Kathy Duva, said she would use the rrematch clause in the contract for a second fight.ddddddddddddHe won the first six rounds so I dont know how he could lose a decision, Duva said. Im happy we had a great fight. Boxing needed a great fight.The fight was billed as a matchup of U.S. and Russian fighters, with the 2004 Olympic gold medalist Ward against a Russian who lives mostly in the Los Angeles area. It was a classic matchup of puncher versus boxer, and for the early part of the fight the puncher was winning.Kovalev flashed his power early, hitting Ward with a left hand midway through the first round that briefly wobbled Wards legs. Ward grabbed and held on and finished the round jabbing at the Russian, but the tone of the fight was set early.Midway through the second round, both fighters threw right hands but it was Kovalevs that landed flush to the side of Wards head, putting him on the canvas. He got up quickly and smiles as if not hurt but needed all of his supreme defensive skills to make it out of the round.Ward seemed unwilling to go inside after that, moving backward and trying to land jabs to control the action. But he abandoned the style that had served him so well over the years and fought moving backward, throwing only one punch at a time, as Kovalev constantly pressed the attack.Ward did have some moments, including the seventh round when he landed a good left that snapped Kovalevs head back.Ward earned $5 million, while Kovalev was paid $2 million plus a percentage of pay-per-view.On the undercard, two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields made her pro debut a successful one, winning a decision over Franchon Crews in a four-round super middleweight fight.Shields came back from a slow first round to land the bigger punches in an entertaining fight. Both women, fighting without headgear for the first time, traded punches freely but Shields won all over four rounds on the scorecards of the three ringside judges.Shields, who became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics and added another in Rio in August, had vowed to be impressive in her first pro fight. And she wasnt shy about trading punches with Franchon, a Baltimore fighter who lost to her during the Olympic trials in 2012. ' ' '