Superhero Ben Stokes shows innate ability to tilt Test England’s way | Barney Ronay

Jul 28, 2017

Against South Africa, Ben Stokes hit possibly the best of his five Test centuries, an innings of real craft in attack and defence, to put England in a strong position

For Ben Stokes the demands of international sport have always been specific and rarefied. Your everyday Test cricketer faces a fairly simple two-stage examination. First up is: am I good enough? All being well this is followed pretty quickly by: how long can I keep doing this? Repeat, fingernails scraping against the door frame, for as long as humanly possible.

Stokes belongs to a more elevated caste of cricketer, those for whom vibrant, relentlessly seductive talent has never been in doubt. But whose task is instead to find a rhythm and a method in among the sparks and flashes, a way to play to wring the best out of what is so obviously there.

Tags: Ben Stokes Cricket England cricket team England v South Africa 2017 South Africa cricket team Sport