Ben Stokes was modesty itself when recalling how his career-defining innings of 258 unfolded but he did admit that he reached the stage where one of his key challenges was “to get lager on the ball” by hitting it into a nearby brewery.
“I’ll probably never play like this ever again in my life while playing cricket but I’ve done it once so at least I can say that,” he said. “I normally say ‘crikey’ when I get to 30, to be honest. I felt a little bit of pressure coming into the game with not having too many runs under my belt in the Tests before this, so there was lot more emotion than I do normally show when I got to the hundred especially.
“I just tried to keep on going and wasn’t really thinking of any landmarks or anything as I went along – I just tried to hit as many boundaries as I could because it was too hot to run.”
Stokes hit one ball so hard it landed in the brewery. “I tried about 10 or 12 times before I actually managed to do it. I was trying to get lager on the ball.”
England's Ben Stokes celebrates scoring a double century on the second day of the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday Photo: REUTERS
For breakfast, Stokes had a ham omelette – or “ham-and-egg omelette”, as he said before correcting himself to laughter, including his own – but did not bother to play himself in again as Alastair Cook suggested. He thought there “were enough balls to throw my hands through. I didn’t want to hang around and nudge my way to a hundred because I would be a little bit annoyed with myself if I took the more selfish route, so basically I tried to get there as quick as I could.
“It’s nice to hold records but the one thing I don’t concentrate too much on is averages. It’s a pretty clichéd thing to say, but I’d rather be involved in a winning team than have really good averages with bat and ball.”
Doubling up: Ben Stokes eclebrates his landmark innings in Cape Town on Sunday
He credited team-mate Joe Root for helping him to settle on the first day. “Me and Rooty bat really well together so when you’re walking out there and you know you’re starting off your innings with a guy you generally do quite well with, that’s a massive settler. So that does help when you’re walking out there, especially on a hat-trick.
“When I play the ball straight down the ground is when I’m in decent form,” Stokes added. “When I’m not in good form I probably try and work it across to the legside.
“When I looked at the board [this morning], we had a lot runs and I thought we were in good position anyway. So I just tried to chance my arm because I thought me slogging one up in the air wouldn’t hurt too much.”
Ben Stokes' 258
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