Leeds, England // Ben Stokes will find himself at the centre of attention when England face his native New Zealand in the second Test at Headingley on Friday.
His 85-ball 100, the fastest Test century scored at Lord’s in terms of balls faced, played a key role in turning the tide of the series opener that England won by 124 runs to go 1-0 up in the two-match contest on Monday.
Stokes, 23, had already helped rescue England from the depths of 30 for four in their first innings by making 92 while adding 161 with Joe Root (98).
And, just for good measure, the Durham man, who came to England with his family as a 12 year old, took three wickets for 38 on Monday’s final day, including those of danger man Kane Williamson and New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum in successive balls.
Read more:
– Joe Root confident Trevor Bayliss’s ‘great success’ will rub off on England team
– From bad shape to never better, suddenly England are intriguing ahead of Ashes
But Root, like Stokes one of several young players who shone for England at Lord’s including debutant fast bowler Mark Wood, is confident the all-rounder will not get carried away with the hype that followed his second Test century that came some 18 months after his first at Perth.
“He will be fine,” Root said of Stokes. “When he is batting, he is a free spirit. He goes and plays his shots, and puts sides under pressure.
“Even in times of struggle, when we are 30 for four, he came out and put them on the back foot. It will not work every time and could have looked slightly reckless if it didn’t come off.
“The key for him and the rest of us now is to make sure it is not a one-off and go on and do it again this week.”
The first Test was notable, too, for a marathon innings of 162 by England captain Alastair Cook that left the opener just 32 runs shy of overtaking Essex mentor Graham Gooch’s England Test runs record of 8,900.
So it was no surprise that new England coach Trevor Bayliss, who will take over in time for the Ashes, was heartened by what he had seen.
“I’ve been staying up late into the night watching the last Test at Lord’s to do some research and it’s great to see,” the Australian said.
“I’d much rather come into working with a team that’s on a high.”
For New Zealand, defeat was tough to take as so many of their players had set their hearts on becoming just the second Black Caps side, after the 1999 team, to win a Test at Lord’s.
They also did many of the things that would normally secure a victory, scoring more than 700 runs in the match and taking 20 wickets.
But in the end they were well beaten.
“That was such a game of punch and counter-punch,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said.
“It was really the fourth day that turned it around. We felt we bowled well enough to get three or four wickets in the morning, but Alastair Cook and the way Ben Stokes and Joe Root played took the game away from us. That was the turning point.”
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
