He scored just one run but in his match-winning stand with Ben Stokes, England’s No 11 became the owner of cricket’s most famous pair of spectacles since the days of David SteeleWell, his running between the wickets borders on the diabolical. It is not straightforward to find a fresh slant upon Ben Stokes’s innings of the century – and possibly any century. However, he is not the first great player for whom there is considerable scope for improvement in this department. Denis Compton was in this category, so too Geoffrey Boycott and in this generation Kane Williamson – peerless batsmen yet sometimes harum-scarum runners.At Headingley Jos Buttler had to go and but for a Nathan Lyon fumble, which – as...
After a dizzying day in Leeds it is hard to imagine anything this year in this sport or any other eclipsing Ben Stokes’s display hereOh hell, just call it all off now. Forget the Premier League, cancel the Rugby World Cup, bin the world athletics championship and whatever else we’re supposed to get excited about in the coming weeks and months. And for goodness sake, junk the Hundred too. They’ll all pale after this Headingley Test, when Ben Stokes, that most unlikely saint, worked the second of the two miracles he needs for his canonisation. This was the innings of his lifetime, and everyone else’s too, certainly the best anyone has played for England since Ian Botham overturned odds of...
Steve Smith and Ben Stokes will understand forgiveness is not just earned by runs and wickets, it is by willingness to rebuild the example you setThe greatest cricketers obsess over their game with a motivation to be the best they can be. They squeeze out every ounce of skill and fitness which helps them approach matches with an unbreakable mentality, knowing every part of preparation has been covered. They throw themselves at every conceivable practice and game scenario to absorb, learn and build experiences to lock away in the memory bank. When they are faced with these situations again they then instinctively know what to do.Away from the playing field, though, I was reminded last week that even the greatest...
The win over South Africa could not have gone much better for England – and that catch galvanised an unexpected amount of interest in the Cricket World CupIt was not only the England team who were grateful to Ben Stokes in the victory over South Africa. So was everyone in the offices of the England and Wales Cricket Board, which is eager to promote this “once in a generation opportunity”.The board can – and has – contrived lots of well-meaning gimmickry in an effort to galvanise interest in the 2019 World Cup. But all of its efforts were utterly outstripped by the eight-second clip shown on Thursday’s Ten O’Clock News of Stokes taking that catch to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo on...
The all-rounder came in when England were wobbling but his calm assurance set up a big total and then he took a wonder catch and the last two South Africa wicketsAccording to the ICC the average age of people who have bought tickets for this World Cup is 40, but one would never have known it on Thursday morning. It felt as ife there were 25,000 children spilling out of the tube stations and pouring up Harleyford Road towards the Oval.Everyone who cares feels a bit like a little kid again on days such as this, especially now England have a team worth getting childishly excited about. So the stands rang with that very particular sound, unique to a cricket...