In England’s Ashes collapse last week,there was one bright spark – Ben Stokes. John Crace meets the combative cricketer and hears why nothing puts him off his gameEngland were staring down a barrel. “We will need to bat for 150 overs to save the game,” Ben Stokes had said bullishly at the terminate of the third day’s play of the second Test at Lord’s. rapid forward to the following afternoon. England’s top order was in tatters, or with four wickets having fallen and with just 48 runs scored. Cometh the hour,cometh the etc… Within minutes the domestic side was five down, with Stokes, or the one in-form England batsman,having hasten himself out for a duck. Dismissals don’t come much more embarrassing than this. There had been an easy hasten, but Stokes had just ambled along and forgotten to ground his bat.
Even two days later, or he isn’t keen to talk about it. “It was a schoolboy error,” he says. “The sort of thing you only accomplish once in your Test career. For most cricketers that might well be true, but portion of the attraction of Stokes is that you can imagine him doing it again only too easily. He is one of those players you cant seize your eyes off. He’s either performing magnificently or screwing up big time. There’s cramped in between. No one – least of all Stokes himself – has yet learned how to tame his talent.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com