PERFECT TIME FOR BIG BEN TO STRIKE AGAIN

All-rounder inspires with bat and ball as England step up to square series

THERE were several players Joe Root turned to for a moment of magic during this secondTest.

Plenty answered such as Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Dom Sibley with a careful century and even Dom Bess, whose two late wickets were balm for a bruising day.

But when the dust settles on a 113-run win for England that levelled the series, one name keeps rising above all else.

Step forward, once again, Ben Stokes.

If one moment summed up what the all-rounder brings to this side it came at the start of the eighth over of a draining spell towards the end of the middle session at Old Trafford.

Set 312 for victory or more realistically 85 overs to see out for a draw,West Indies had weathered the storm of the new ball and were putting together a potentially matchsaving fifth-wicket partnership between Jermaine Blackwood and Shamarh Brooks.

Stokes fired his body to the crease once more only for Blackwood to punch a drive back past him.

With no mid-off Stokes turned and sprinted back to field off his own bowling, diving into a full length slide into the boundary in an effort to keep the ball in play.

Although he did not manage it – the pair running four to bring up a 100 partnership – the effort and intent was outstanding, setting an example to a young side.

Three balls later, a tiring Stokes fired in a short ball at Blackwood which the batsman fended around the corner and Jos Buttler dived to catch. It was the moment, with the last ball before tea, that broke West

Indies resolve. From there the partnerships did not hold.

Bess, below, who had been punished by Jason Holder before sending him on his way with an outpouring of frustration, also took the last wicket with the first ball of the 71st over to secure the win.

Stokes had already staked a claim to be man of the match in the first innings with an impressively twopaced century – caution giving way to something more urgent when the score warranted it.

But his brutal 57-ball 78 in the second when England were rushing to declaration boxed it off.

Three sixes and four fours lifted England to an acceptable total to enable Root to declare on 129-3.

Yet it was his long stints of bowling with the older ball which produced key breakthroughs, the barnacle Kraigg Brathwaite in the first innings and a well-set Blackwood yesterday.

Stokes continued to sweat and toil for his captain until halfway through his 15th over before pulling up with some muscle ache.

By that stage his second wicket had put victory on a plate.

Root will be sweating on Stokes’s fitness with the series 1-1 and third Test on Friday. Although the fact Stokes refused to leave the field after pulling up short, as well a long history of cloakwearing indestructibility, will give his captain confidence he will be available for the decider. With several key men ready to return including Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Jimmy Anderson, England will be equally confident they can prevent a first series win here by West Indies since 1988.

Given Broad laid such a loud claim to keep his place and Chris Woakes, reaching 100 Test wickets yesterday, it is this strength in depth that should give them the edge over a tired West Indies.

Holder and Phil Simmons simply do not have the same sort of strength in reserve. They simply do not have Stokes either.