Big Ben will be a legend like Botham
THErE are not enough superlatives to describe Ben Stokes here after one of the great Test innings in one of the greatest of all Tests. He does not know when to give up.
Just think about what he has been through this summer. Just think about the mental and physical effort that went into winning the World Cup.
This bloke was there at the end of it. Stokes was there at the end of the super over.
Now consider the energy and mental toughness he needed to do what he did at Headingley yesterday. It was the smartness of that unbeaten 135 I can’t get over.
Stokes made Tim Paine and Australia look completely devoid of all ideas. The Australians just did not know what to do.
Every decision he made at every stage of that last-wicket stand with Jack Leach was the right one.
When Stokes needed to swing, he swung. When he needed to switch-hit Nathan Lyon into the Western Terrace for six, he did so.
When he needed to knock the ball for two, he did and when he needed to take singles, he did that, too. I’ve never seen anything like it.
You can talk about one-day cricket and the Twenty20 game. But give me these four days in Leeds ahead of anything this game can offer.
Look at the packed Headingley crowd, too, and their reaction as everything unfolded. I think they would put Test cricket ahead of everything else this game can offer, too, judging by the way they appreciated not just every six but every single and even dot balls.
This has to go down with Headingley 1981 and Edgbaston 2005 as the greatest Tests that we have ever seen in this country.
How can anyone produce what Stokes did when the Ashes were on the line? He’s an absolute legend.
Australia got things wrong, no question. Some of their tactics were badly wrong.
How could Paine keep on leaving the field back, allowing Stokes to take a single off the fifth ball of the over and giving his team just one ball at Leach. That was ridiculous.
And then there was the wasted review that cost them so dear.
The ball from Pat Cummins to Leach was clearly pitching outside leg-stump.
Australia’s reviews have been poor throughout the series. Surely yesterday they had to take into account how bad the umpiring has been in this series and that Joel Wilson was standing at Lyon’s end.
Paine badly needed that review but he used it up out of sheer desperation.
But Stokes deserved that luck. When you look back at the great all-rounders it all came naturally to someone like Sir Ian Botham.
Then you have players who are perhaps not blessed with quite so much ability but make the most of it. This man is a unique combination. He is blessed with exceptional talent, works so hard to make the most of it and is extremely tough mentally.
Do not forget his bowling either. Stokes brought England back into the match late on the second day, after they had been bowled out for 67, with a heroic spell.
Yes, he’s had his problems off the field but the images from Bristol, that perhaps clouded what people may think of him, do not represent the man I know.
He’s a polite and popular young man who works harder on his fitness and his game than anyone I know. Those things pay off in the end.
The fumble by Lyon when Leach should have been run out was an example of the pressure these guys were under out there. When you’re under pressure and tired, you make mistakes in any walk of life, so to have the clarity of thought that Stokes had was beyond belief.
And that’s why the Ashes are still alive heading to Manchester next week.
You feel for Australia. They must have thought it was all done and dusted here when Stuart Broad was ninth out with 73 needed.
At least they have nine days now before the fourth Test and they look sure to bring back Steve Smith.
But something like this can only lift England.
When the difficult moments come up in the final two Tests they will remember this partnership.
The Aussies should have wrapped the Ashes up by now. That they have not is fantastic for the series and for English cricket. Thanks to Ben Stokes.