'Roland-Jones found perfect length on first spell in Test cricket'
Tuesday 1 August 2017 22:41, UK
It's going to be hard to beat the fastest 250 in Test cricket so I can't say Ben Stokes' century at The Oval is his best innings for England but it was his most responsible.
It was proof, if we needed it, that he can play in two completely different ways - in Cape Town he was swashbuckling, whereas here he was savvy and read the conditions.
England were stunned by the criticism they received about their style, brand and tempo of cricket after their heavy defeat at Trent Bridge but hopefully that message has sunk in.
Over the course of five days, pitches change and conditions change and there are times to attack but also sit in - Stokes typified that throughout his innings.
When he initially came into England's Test team he was a player who liked pace on the ball, getting his first three hundreds at Perth, Lord's and Cape Town.
He has been working hard in the nets on dealing with pace off the ball, being able to manoeuvre the ball better and adapting his tempo, both in limited-overs and Test-match cricket.
Stokes' century in Rajkot over the winter was evidence of that, as was this innings at The Oval - all you can ask of a player is to keep improving and Stokes certainly is.
Ben is out there working every morning, including on his bowling as he hasn't bowled much in red-ball cricket over the last six months - he is a genuine, world-class all-rounder who balances England perfectly.
He is also a streetfighter and someone you want to go into battle with - if it doesn't go his way, like in the World T20 final, he will always put his hand up and ask to be put under pressure again.
He's not a shirker, he's not a hider and he's not someone who says: 'That's the way I play'. He plays the situation - and by doing that he worked England up to a very decent total of 353.
Getting to a hundred with back-to-back sixes - and then blasting another one for good measure - was typical Stokes. With Jimmy Anderson up the other end, he wasn't going to do it in singles!
The Oval is a big cricket ground but Stokes has so much confidence from white-ball cricket and everything that he has achieved in the IPL etc that if Keshav Maharaj tossed it up, he was going to tee off.
South Africa didn't bowl particularly well, mind you, and it was a massive loss for them that Vernon Philander, exactly the type of bowler you want in overcast conditions, is battling illness.
Morne Morkel bowled extremely well - going full and beating the edge a few times - but Philander's problems meant Morkel was the workhorse, which is not what you want. You want him for short, sharp bursts.
I was very surprised South Africa didn't play a warm-up match between the second and third Tests - it would have given Kagiso Rabada a bowl after his suspension at Trent Bridge and allowed Chris Morris to get used to the Dukes ball, which he is not comfortable with and is struggling to control.
Toby Roland-Jones did not struggle on his first spell in international cricket, nipping out four South African batsmen, and I think Joe Root worked things perfectly with him.
Anderson, one of the great swing bowlers, was taken off after three overs so that Root could bring Roland-Jones into the action just before tea and he duly picked up a wicket before the break.
People say he is Angus Fraser-like but I think that is more in character than anything else – he is someone who will do the hard yards and not only bowl when it’s zipping around.
Roland-Jones bowls a good length, a full length. Perhaps Jimmy and Stuart Broad were a fraction short and wide to find Dean Elgar's edge, despite going past it on a number of occasions, and by pitching the ball up a tad, Roland-Jones got England the breakthrough.
Shaun Pollock said this morning that the only piece of advice he would give Roland-Jones was to bowl exactly how he would for Middlesex - don't change, complicate things or try to be Anderson or Broad. Being Roland-Jones worked out just fine for him.
Smashing a quick-fire 25 with the bat would have given him a lot of confidence, too, and it proved that he could be a very useful number nine as well as a good option with the ball.
Live coverage of the third Test between England and South Africa - in association with Sky Ocean Rescue - continues at 10am on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday, with a Kevin Pietersen Masterclass in our build-up.
