A career turnaround is complete as Stokes earns his reward for dedication
Scrapes and silliness of the past are forgotten as England warrior takes on ultimate hero status
Of the two 28-yearolds who turned this round – made it possible for England to stand on top of the world – Ben Stokes was the one in danger of being remembered as an anti-hero. The more angelic Jos Buttler was right there with him in mid-innings when all seemed lost, but it was Stokes’s iron will that told.
Every great team has a kind of brute who refuses to take a backward step, who sees hope in the midst of despair.
England have built their one-day cricket revolution on intelligent scientific principles as well as freedom of expression.
But none of that guarantees the step across the threshold.
For that, you need a fighter like Stokes. And sometimes you need outrageous luck of the sort that fell his way in the final over when he threw himself headlong down the pitch to avoid being run out and deflected the ball to the boundary.
Being a more diplomatic sort these days, Stoke raised his arms to apologise to New Zealand, the land of his birth, but took the extra runs anyway as England staggered to a tie and a savage super-over shoot-out, which Jofra Archer somehow bowled his way to the end of under intolerable pressure.
When Archer dropped to his knees in relief, and to celebrate a world title win 72 days after his England debut, it was Stokes who hugged him and reminded him of what he and this wonderful England team had accomplished.
Less than two years ago, Stokes was a pariah, a wasted talent, a lost boy who was suspended for an Ashes tour that England lost 4-0. His biography was a rap sheet of scrapes and silliness. Breaking his
wrist while punching a locker in the Caribbean was just one of the lunacies he wrote about (quite cheerfully) in his autobiography. Back then he seemed to accept his role as a renegade, as if change was beyond him and the call of the night too strong. Nobody in the England camp sees Stokes this way now. He is the over-trainer who has to be told to stop, the warrior who never shirks a challenge. If Eoin Morgan was the thinker in this England side, Joe Root the anchor, Jason Roy the bullyopener and Jos Buttler the artistic destroyer, Stokes was the heir to Ian Botham and Freddie Flintoff who could hunt a team down. This was a World Cup final that left people holding their heads and trying to calm their heaving chests. It was impossibly dramatic, spun out by a sadistic director to include a lucky escape for England, 241 runs for both sides and that cruel, six-ball-per-side caper that left New Zealand exactly where England had been in the regulation 50 overs – needing two to win from one delivery. Stokes was central to it all. He arrived with England’s vaunted batting line-up fraying on a slow pitch. So much for all that talk of 500run innings and slugfests. This World Cup has not been that way. So what England needed against a country of 4.79m people who overachieve astonishingly in world cricket was someone to restore order and put the grand design back on track.
The moment that told you Stokes could do it was when he strode down the wicket and brought England’s hundred up by crashing James Neesham down the ground. Stokes was telling New Zealand their revels were about to end – that he and Buttler meant business.
From there, the dream of a first world title in the 50-over game began to rise from its grave. When the game reached stalemate, Stokes was 84 not out and Buttler had gone for 59, leaving one of his famous ramp-shot boundaries for the highlights compilers.
No wonder Stokes and Buttler were sent back out for the super over, where they pieced 15 runs together and placed the onus back on New Zealand.
Buttler, the gentle soul, and Stokes, the macho man, were giving Archer something to aim at. Stokes, you will remember, has acute and painful memories of late denouements. In the 2016 World Twenty20 final in Kolkata, he had 19 runs to defend when he bowled the last over to Carlos Brathwaite
Less than two years ago, Stokes was a pariah. Nobody in the England camp thinks that way now
but saw four consecutive deliveries sail away for six.
Even that seemed not to deter him. The Bristol street brawl in 2017, however, might have finished his career.
He was cleared of affray at Bristol Crown Court but was fined £30,000 and missed eight matches. His absence from that winter’s Ashes tour was among the factors that prompted Morgan and others to overhaul squad “culture” – a move that ultimately cost Alex Hales his place in this triumphant one-day side.
Stokes had two close calls in this unforgettable emotional marathon: the deflection for four, and a six that Trent Boult caught and threw back in while stepping on the boundary rope, thus rendering Martin Guptill’s support catch irrelevant.
“I don’t think there will be another ending like this in the history of cricket,” Stokes said.
“Jos and I knew if we’d be there close to the end, New Zealand would be under pressure.
“Not the way I wanted to do it, ball going off my bat like that, but I apologised to Kane.”
Stokes has done a lot of apologising in his England career. Now he can see what dedication can do for you. When he turned the corner, hero status was out there waiting.