Stokes douses Protea fire
In one of the most memorable knocks at the historical ground that is Newlands, Ben Stokes doused whatever fire was still left in the Proteas engine when he raced to a record 258 runs off just 198 balls on the second day of his team’s second Test against South Africa on Sunday.
Stokes needed just 12 balls to reach his century from his overnight total of 75 and blasted the Proteas bowlers to all parts of the ground as he and Jonny Bairstow (150) put on a record 399 runs for the sixth wicket.
England later declared with their total on 629/6 and Stokes would cap off a dream day by taking the wicket of Dean Elgar (44).
“It hasn’t really all sunk in yet, the emotions were obviously running high and quite a lot of adrenaline running through, but this moment in time I don’t know,” a stoked Stokes said after the day’s play.
As for his approach, the England all-rounder insisted it was a case of ‘keep it simple sam’.
“See ball, hit ball, I guess,” he quipped.
“I looked at the scoreboard and I thought we had a really good score on the board anyway this morning so I just thought to keep on going the way I did last night.”
“I felt a bit of pressure coming into the game, not having too many runs under my belt coming into the Tests and before this.
“There was a lot more emotion than what I normally show when I do come to the hundred, but yes, I just tried to keep on going and I wasn’t thinking of any milestones – I was just trying to hit as many boundaries as possible as it was too hot to run.
Stokes revealed that he had a ham omelet for breakfast and that he had ignored the advice his captain gave him when play resumed on Sunday.
“Cookie (Alastair Cook) said to get myself in again, but I thought there was enough balls to just throw my hand through and I kept going.
“I didn’t want to hang around and nudge my way to a hundred because I would have been annoyed at myself had I took a more selfish root to get to that.
“It is nice to hold records, but I think the one thing I don’t concentrate on too much is averages and stuff like that. I would rather be involved with a winning team rather than have good averages with the bat and ball.”
Reflecting on the records he improved and the milestone he reached as a Test player, Stokes insisted that statistics meant nothing and admitted that, in some good news from a Proteas perspective, what transpired at Newlands was a once in a lifetime thing.
“I’ll probably never play like this ever again in my life. But at least, I’ve done it once so I can say that, but averages and things like that is not something I tend to focus on.”
ANA
(File photo)