Ben Stokes intends to finish the season on a high after an international summer to forget and his rambunctious century has ensured at least one more match on the big stage.
Although the 23-year-old was overlooked for Sunday’s Twenty20 international against India, he will feature in a first Lord’s final in a fortnight after his career-best 164 concluded a nightmare week in the north-east for Nottinghamshire.
Challenged with completing what would have represented the second highest one-day chase in English domestic history, they were unable to maintain realistic hope despite another three-figure contribution from their captain James Taylor, whose own limited-overs acumen was overshadowed by a stunning reprise from one of English cricket’s primal talents.
Since proving to be England’s isolated beacon in the darkest of Ashes winters, Stokes’ star has been on the wane, with as much attention drawn to his striking of inanimate objects as leather ones hurled from 22 yards. But this innings emphatically put his horror sequence of 43 runs and six ducks in a dozen internationals innings – snapped against the Indians at Headingley on Friday – behind him.
Once again it was Nottinghamshire – whose County Championship title hopes took a slam here 72 hours earlier – that bore the brunt. “It is good to feel back in some nick,” Stokes, who hit 103 against the Outlaws in a group game last month, said. “I have obviously had a pretty disappointing time with England but it is good to be contributing for Durham. It is frustrating when you feel in good nick and it is not just happening in the middle. The last one-day game we played against Notts probably turned my season. It filled me with belief in my own ability again.”
Nottinghamshire had one chance – and two bites at it – to avoid the mauling but wicketkeeper Chris Read, standing up to Steven Mullaney’s dobbers, failed to cling on to a thin edge and fluffed the rebound, too, as the ball sank to the turf. Stokes was on just 12.
How they were left to rue the miss as Stokes showcased his deadly mix of precision and power. On numerous occasions he pierced the inner ring with such ferocity that the boundary riders were deemed redundant.
The bulk of his scoring was done during a 135-run stand with opener Phil Mustard. A dasher himself in his salad days, Mustard went boundary-less for 18 overs, a period in which he scrimped 11 runs from 45 deliveries to get Durham into position.
The pair hit overdrive in a powerplay that reaped 58 runs for the loss of Mustard, run out by the alert Ajmal Shahzad in his follow-through, before Stokes knocked the entire visiting attack out of kilter. Three figures arrived off just 84 balls. Only a further 19 were required for 150 as the death bowlers shunned the blockhole for slower balls and were savaged over the ropes at long off, midwicket and square leg.
The result was academic by the time he holed out going for his seventh six and although Taylor’s fourth 50-over hundred was further notice of his own World Cup ambitions this was Stokes’ day. As if to emphasise it, he had the last word with Taylor’s dismissal to seal the 83-run win.
