Ben Stokes and the Heist That Was Left Unfinished

When Jonny Bairstow was dismissed controversially the heads automatically turned to Ben Stokes. He had been out their for a while and was going pretty well, biding his time. With 178 runs left though the eyes fell on him as the crowd was awaiting another miracle from their Superman. Miracles are as the word suggests unexpected. They occur and they occur at a time when its least expected and here it was with Ben Stokes staring down a massive total all alone, as he looked at the situation in the eye and took it on.

Miracles and Ben Stokes are not new. On the very same ground, he pulled of a miracle in 2019 to win England the World Cup. Eight months ago he did the same at Melbourne to give England the T20 World Cup. In the Ashes too, ghosts of the Headingley Test lives large and that is probably what went through the mind of both sides when Ben Stokes was raging.

The stage was set for Ben Stokes to do it again. Controversy and some hostile short-pitch bowling had England in a spot of bother. Ben Stokes though did not wait. He pulled and hooked the short-balls ferociously while shielding the other batters as well. He went from 82 to 100 with three sixes in an innings that could be categorized into two parts, before Bairstow’s wicket and after Bairstow’s wicket.

Within 21 overs, the game was moving towards something unseen. It was Ben Stokes vs Australia as he stood between them and a 2-0 Ashes lead. Unlike his previous miracles though, this time Stokes approached the mountain differently. Rather than playing the weighting game he took the attack to the Australians, and threw caution out the window as he backed his pull on his way to nine sixes.

The controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow too could have played a part as the dismissal brought out a lot of emotion in the English camp with Stuart Broad exaggeratedly marking his crease at the end of each over he was on strike.

Green was the first in the firing line. When Ben Stokes took him on it was more a case of Stokes taking on the fourth seamer to put pressure on a side that does not have its main spinner due to injury. When Cummins ran in from the other end though Ben Stokes managed to do the same, giving Cummins, Australia’s strike bowler some rough treatment.

As was the case in Headingly, Ben Stokes did not show much expression and did not even bother to celebrate his century. He knew there was an Ashes Test on the line, and a loss could make the road all the more difficult with England now needing to win three Tests on the trot. It was all going Stokes way until the last phase where Australia finally managed to get themselves together.

After finally going fuller, Australia managed to dry up the runs and eventually had Ben Stokes slicing one up to Alex Carey sending him back to the dugout. He could not take his side home, but his innings was and will definitely go down as an Ashes Classic as Ben Stokes single-handedly scared the Australians with yet another superhuman effort.