The career of Ben Stokes has been littered with “extraordinary scenes”, said Ali Martin in The Guardian – and there was a final one last Sunday, on his penultimate day as an England cricketer. At 3.27pm on the fourth day of the third Test against New Zealand, Stokes was “about to start the 11th over of another marathon spell”, when a “ripple of applause” broke out around Trent Bridge.
That morning, the England captain had told his teammates that he’d be retiring from internationals at the end of the Test – and the news had just been made public. Now that the crowd were “in on the secret”, they rose as one to roar their “champion all-rounder” as he hurtled towards the crease. “And then it happened.” Stokes’s delivery found the edge of Zak Foulkes’s bat, and “flew low into the hands of Harry Brook at second slip”.
Final flourish
With his 252nd Test wicket, Stokes had provided one last “I was there moment”, to go with “countless others” throughout his career. As his teammate Joe Root said later: “It was the most Ben Stokes thing you will ever see.”
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Later that same day, Stokes “added a final, frantic flourish” to the Bazball era, by promoting himself to open England’s fourth innings, said Nick Hoult in The Daily Telegraph. With his team needing 373 in just under four sessions, he charged down the pitch to his first ball, attempted to reverse sweep his second, and smacked his sixth for six. But his somewhat “reckless” cameo was short-lived – he departed after hitting 30 from 20 balls – and after that England’s hopes faded. They were bowled out the next day for 212, giving New Zealand a 2-1 victory in the series – England’s first defeat in a home three-match series for 14 years.
Magic of Headingley
“The numbers brook no argument,” said Mike Atherton in The Times. Stokes is one of only two all-rounders in history – the other being South Africa’s Jacques Kallis – to have finished his Test career with more than 250 wickets and 7,000 runs. Yet his significance as a cricketer goes beyond statistics. He will be remembered chiefly for his unique ability to shape games – and entire teams – through the sheer force of his personality.
From his match-winning innings in the 2019 World Cup final to the way he galvanised a previously bedraggled England when he first took over as captain, his achievements have been nothing short of remarkable, said Scyld Berry in The Daily Telegraph.
Yet his “legacy will always be” that magical day at Headingley in the 2019 Ashes, when he secured one of England’s most improbable victories by sharing an unbeaten stand of 76 for the final wicket with his “faithful partner Jack Leach”, who contributed just one run. The moment when Stokes “smote” Pat Cummins to the boundary to secure the victory – and then roared, celebrated and hugged his partner – might just be “the moment that gave more people joy than any other in the history of this sport”.
