MATURITY WAS THE BIG PLUS IN STOKES’ INNINGS

THERE are some innings you just feel privileged to witness. On Monday, Ben Stokes made an unbeaten 106 off 63 balls for Rising Pune Supergiants in their unexpected win over Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League.

I was doing commentary on the game for talkSport and so saw every shot, every decision and every brow-mop that Stokes made – and there were plenty of each.

Now a T20 hundred is unusual enough, but one when your team are 10 for three after nine balls, it becomes a thing of legend. It was, quite simply, one of the great feats of IPL and easily the most significant innings by an England player in that competition.

Having already bowled on the pitch, Stokes knew it was truer than many at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, so he began with a swagger. The most immediate threat came not from any of Gujarat Lions’ bowlers, though both Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner are no slouches, but from the runout in the sixth over of Rahul Tripathi, Pune’s opening batsman and one having a fine season in the IPL.

The wasteful and farcical nature of the run-out could easily have distracted Stokes or made him do something foolhardy, yet he appeared to put it out of his head at a stroke. It probably helped that it wasn’t his fault. Indeed, it may even have made him more determined because what followed was a faultless knock of verve, power and intelligent design that contained six sixes and seven fours.

Most who have seen Stokes from a young age will have been aware of his brilliance as an athlete and cricketer – that has never been in doubt.What has is the discipline and nous to let that talent shine more often than not.

Impressively, for someone who has been at odds with authority as well as the odd dressing-room locker, Stokes has sought to add those qualities to his game, most notably during the recent Test tour of India.

His innings at Pune on Monday was an apotheosis of that, proof, if it were needed, that work on the mundane aspects of sporting craft, even for the supremely gifted, has its rewards.