Ben Stokes has found wickets hard to come by this season, but he made the ball move lavishly at Lord’s and joined a select group of players in the process
George Dobell at Lord's07-Sep-20171:50
‘Felt like I was letting the team down’ – Stokes
Like coming to a wedding, knocking over the cake and shouting ‘she’s a man,’ Ben Stokes rather upstaged the bride at Lord’s.By the time James Anderson claimed the first two wickets of the West Indies innings, taking his total Test wicket tally to 499, most in the ground thought they were going to be treated to a celebration of great English swing bowling.And, in a way, they were. It’s just the identity of the bowler was Stokes rather than Anderson.It would, of course, be premature to suggest that Stokes is one of England’s greatest swing bowlers. He is a terrific cricketer in many ways, but he is not up there with Anderson or Ian Botham or Fred Trueman as a bowler at this stage.But there were times here when he did out-bowl Anderson. There were times here when the movement he gained was so late, so sharp and so violent that you could hardly blame the West Indies batsmen for struggling to deny him. There were times when he bowled well enough to justify his selection as a specialist.That is not to suggest Anderson bowled poorly. Far from it. He passed the edge often, saw a chance put down and bowled what Stokes called “the best over in Test history not to take a wicket” to Devendra Bishoo who was beaten like a snare drum. It was just that Stokes, fresh from some remedial work with Ottis Gibson, bowled better.In particular, he has cut back on the exaggerated jump into the stumps he had a habit of making – Botham went through a similar process during the 1981 Ashes – in a bid to increase his momentum as he delivers the ball. He has also worked on ensuring he completes his action, that he isn’t too worried about getting close to the stumps – he feels if he worries too much about that he loses some pace – and on his seam position.The delivery that dismissed Roston Chase – a peach of a ball that was angled in, straightened off the seam (and down the slope) and took the off stump – might have been good enough for Sachin or Viv, while the vast inswinger that accounted for Jason Holder was reminiscent of Waqar Younis. And there isn’t much higher praise than that.There was a time, a couple of years ago, when Stokes feared he had lost his outswinger. He damaged the index finger of his right hand when fielding and a botched operation resulted in it being set in something of a clawed position. For a while he feared he would only be able to bowl an outswinger by reversing the ball.But he has clearly found a way to swing the ball conventionally. The ball that took Shane Dowrich’s edge was an outswinger that demanded a stroke and took the edge and would have pleased Anderson or Botham. He claimed his last three wickets without conceding a run and will resume in the second innings on a hat-trick.Stokes is a thoughtful bowler, too. Understanding the need to harness the swing on offer, he pitched the ball considerably fuller than usual – only once in his Test career has he pitched fuller on average during an entire innings – and had the skill to bowl an almost identical number of inswingers as outswingers.Ben Stokes quickly went through West Indies•Getty ImagesThe cynics will point to Stokes’ career bowling average – which was 35.35 before play and 33.50 after it – and suggest he is a modest bowler. But the figures don’t tell the full story of the role Stokes fulfils in this side. They don’t show that, on days when the ball swings, he barely gets a look in behind Anderson and Stuart Broad. Even here, he was not asked to bowl until the 30th over and might not have bowled nearly so much had Broad not been forced off the pitch with a recurrence of the heel problem which was troubled him intermittently over the last few years. It may be telling that Stokes’ previous best figures – 6 for 36 against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2015 – came when England were without Anderson due to injury. Given greater opportunity, Stokes’ figures may well improve considerably.As the quickest of England’s bowlers – only Shannon Gabriel has bowled faster than him here – it is often Stokes’ role to ‘make things happen’ at a time when others cannot. So he may be the one required to deliver the barrage of short balls that can be so draining and so damaging to personal figures. It was in one such spell earlier this summer that he bounced out Dean Elgar, well set on 80, at Trent Bridge. His stamina is such that he bowled his 14.3 overs in one spell – albeit one interrupted by tea – and his versatility is such that he bowled some offspin in the UAE. It might be stretching a point to call him the ‘Ginger Sobers’ but, as he ended the day as England’s top-scorer, he underlined the point that England are lucky to have him.He already has more Test five-fors (four) than Andrew Flintoff (three). And more centuries (six to Flintoff’s five), too. Having scored a hundred here against New Zealand in 2015, he became just the sixth England player (alongside Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Ian Botham, Ray Illingworth and Gubby Allen) to gain a place on both honours boards at Lord’s with this performance. “They can never take that away from me,” he said. And, aged 26, there should be trunk loads of memories still to come.Afterwards he praised the role that Ottis Gibson, England’s outgoing bowling coach, had had on his game. “If not for Ottis, I wouldn’t have had a day like today,” Stokes said. “I don’t feel I’ve done myself or the team justice this summer. I felt like I was letting them down a bit.”But I’ve had hours in the nets with Ottis and I feel I’ve been getting that consistency back in the last few weeks. Today I assessed the conditions pretty quickly, saw there wasn’t much there for anything back of a length, and tried to get them driving on the front foot. Yes, that’s probably the best I’ve bowled.”Ottis has been amazing. He leaves with the respect of everyone in the dressing room – players and coaches.”The only cloud on the horizon from England’s display in the field was the slip catching. They put down two chances on the first day with Root, at second slip, reprieving Jason Holder on 5 off Stokes and Alastair Cook, at first slip, putting down a relatively simple chance offered by Brathwaite off Anderson on 3. It was the third chance Cook has put down this series, including a crucial one early on the last morning that reprieved Brathwaite. They cannot afford to make such blemishes if they are to have a chance in the Ashes.
