BRILLIANT BEN THE SWING KING
Stokes grabs six, but England need his runs as top order fail again
First came West indies’ Edgbaston capitulation, then their extraordinary Headingley comeback and now more drama on an astonishing first day at Lord’s when 14 wickets fell to leave this final test and a compelling series in the balance.
so much for the pre-series predictions of England cantering to a 3-0 victory that would prove little with the biggest battle of them all against Australia next on the agenda.
Not a bit of it. instead, England will resume today on 46 for four, still 77 behind, after their top order again floundered in the face of hostile West indian bowling in perfect bowling conditions under the Lord’s floodlights.
those conditions had earlier been exploited brilliantly by the talismanic figure of Ben stokes, who produced his best test figures to become only the sixth Englishman to feature on both batting and bowling honours boards here.
And stokes was back in the thick of the action with the bat when the umpires, who deserve credit for ensuring 76.3 overs were bowled in the autumnal gloom, decided enough was enough even under artificial light.
if this was stokes’s day then it was one to forget for tom Westley, who failed again and will need big second-innings runs if he is to fulfil his Ashes dream.
there was concern for England, too, in the cheap dismissal of Mark stoneman, who undid so much of his good work at Headingley by playing at a ball outside off stump from Kemar roach that he really should have left.
there are no worries, of course, about stokes, who is rapidly becoming one of the best and most valuable cricketers in any team in the world, this time producing the best bowling of what is already a stellar career.
When Jimmy Anderson took the first two wickets to fall after Jason Holder had made the bold decision to bat first on a day and pitch, complete with fungus, made for seam, it looked certain he would race to his 500th in tests.
Yet Anderson was left hanging on 499, probably only until today, by stokes’s ability to out- swing the swing master and rip the heart out of a West indies side desperate to follow up Headingley with another display of substance.
remember, Joe root had bafflingly given his vice-captain only five overs on that pulsating last day in Leeds when West indies defied all the odds to make 322 to win the second test and level this investec series.
stokes had taken only three wickets in his last three tests and only 11 in his last eight, with the suspicion that the knee injury that restricted him earlier this summer was still limiting his effectiveness with the ball.
Now he gained extravagant movement through the air and pitched the ball up that fraction more than Anderson and stuart Broad in an unbroken spell of 13 overs between lunch and tea and another nine balls after the interval.
there was little West indies could do to resist stokes. He produced as good an outswinger as could possibly be bowled to take the top of roston Chase’s off stump and bowled Holder with a booming inswinger the Windies skipper was preparing to leave.
Only Jermaine Blackwood, who was bowled trying to slog toby roland- Jones out of the ground, was culpable in his own demise, with West indies this time collapsing to expert bowling from an attack lacking the injured Broad.
the only man not to succumb was Devendra Bishoo, who somehow survived despite playing and missing at five out of six balls from what was to become Anderson’s last over. then stokes mopped up the tail, with Anderson complicit in being left on 499 wickets by taking a brilliant slip catch off roach.
that was the fifth of stokes’s six wickets, and he marked it with a salute to outgoing bowling coach Ottis Gibson as thanks for his work this season.
‘Hard work contributes toward success, which is why i gave a wave up to Gibbo,’ said stokes, who was utterly miserly after conceding six of the 22 runs that came off his 14.3 overs from his first two balls. ‘He’s helped me the last six or seven weeks, loads of technical stuff. if it wasn’t for him, i’m not sure i’d have had a day like i did today. He’ll leave the changingroom with a lot of respect. it’s sad to see him go but it’s a great opportunity for him to help south Africa — hopefully not too much!’
Quite what this will do to stokes’s value in the next indian Premier League draft is mind-boggling and England can only hope he will remain fit and able to cope with the all-round demands facing him internationally and domestically.
stokes could add even more to that value today if he can get England out of yet another batting pickle that leaves more questions than answers over a top order that is not fit for Ashes purpose.
Certainly England will not be able to retain the urn if they keep on losing early wickets and there has to be major concern over their chances in Australia with stoneman and Westley occupying two of the top three places.
there were also failures for the twin peaks of Alastair Cook — who again dropped Kraigg Brathwaite before recovering to take two slip chances — and root, to compound England’s woes.
shannon Gabriel again provided proper West indian pace, peaking at 93mph, but the wickets went to roach and the captain who was on a hat-trick when he sent back Westley and root at the end and beginning of two overs.
stokes calmly defended the hattrick ball and has so far put on 22 with Dawid Malan to at least begin what needs to be another rescue act that was badly needed when England crashed to 24 for four.
All very much to play for.