Five career highlights from the Durham and England all-rounder...
Friday 15 January 2016 15:07, UK
Ben Stokes' staggering 258 for England against South Africa is just the latest chapter in an entertaining cricketing career.
Stokes smashed 30 fours and 11 sixes - an England record - in his 198-ball knock, with his innings also the record-fastest 250 in Tests.
The Durham and England all-rounder has provided a fair few highlights over the years. Click on the video above to see some of them, while we pick out a few of his best bits below...
Maiden Test ton
Talk about a baptism of fire, but Stokes' Test debut came in the 5-0 Ashes whitewash at the hands of Australia in 2013-14, making his bow in the 218-run drubbing in the second Test at Adelaide. But it was his second Test at Perth where he made his name.
Although England succumbed to another heavy, 150-run defeat as Australia wrestled back the Ashes, Stokes showed immense character to score a maiden Test ton on a fifth day Perth pitch that had cataclysmic cracks in it. With England set 504 to win, at one point Stokes' 120 from 195 balls had England dreaming of an unlikely victory. He hit 18 fours and one six in the knock, his straight driving on such an unpredictable surface the standout in an innings of real maturity.
Stokes' Big Bash
Stokes has yet to hit his straps for England in the shorter formats, averaging a shade over 20 in ODIs and just under it in T20Is, while with the ball he has one five-for across 43 white-ball appearances. But he has served notice of the talent brimming at the surface in two particularly timely knocks.
Having lost his place in the England team in the summer of 2014 after a series of low scores - three Test ducks in a row against India following scores of 0,4,5,0 in his four latest ODI outings - Stokes smashed 164 from 113 balls for Durham in a Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final win over Nottinghamshire.
It wasn't enough to convince selectors he was worthy of his inclusion in the England World Cup squad in early 2015 and so instead he showed the x-factor they were so sorely missing with in a fruitful spell in the Big Bash with Melbourne Renegades, an enterprising 77 off 37 balls against Hobart Hurricanes the highlight.
The Stokes salute
Stokes has courted controversy throughout his early international career. He was sent home from a Lions tour in 2013 due to breaking curfew, and had a spell injured out of the side soon after his promising start in Australia, having punched a locker in the West Indies. Back there a year on in the spring of 2015, Stokes was targeted by a wound-up West Indies side, in particular Marlon Samuels.
Samuels, having been chirped at throughout his 103 in the first innings of the second Test by Stokes, thought he'd have some fun at the all-rounder's expense when dismissed for only eight having smashed a Devendra Bishoo long-hop straight to deep square leg. Samuels sent him off with a military-style salute, and while Stokes had the last laugh in that Test as England earned a comfortable nine-wicket win, a five-wicket reverse in Barbados saw the series shared.
Fastest hundred at Lord's
Stokes served notice of the sort of innings witnessed at Cape Town with his brutal dismantling of a stellar New Zealand side at Lord's in the summer. Stokes smashed a record-fastest hundred at Lord's off 85 balls, putting on 132 for the fifth wicket with captain Alastair Cook (162) as England took hold of the Test.
Having trailed by 134 first innings runs, Stokes came to the crease with only a 98-run advantage in England's favour, but his assault on the second new ball, launching Tim Southee for three pulled sixes, helped England earn a healthy lead before wrapping up a 124-run win in front of a bumper May Bank Holiday Monday crowd on the fifth day. Stokes took three wickets, including the crucial strikes of Kane Williamson and Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum with back-to-back balls to have Lord's leaping.
Stokes' Ashes input
It's not all about the bat with Ben. He showed his skill with the ball, and in the field - what a catch by the way - in the 2015 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. Suffering from a lean spell with the bat in the series, with just one fifty in the defeat at Lord's to his name, Stokes stuck his hand up (literally) on the morning of the fourth Test to take a stunning catch to remove Adam Voges as Stuart Broad took 8-15 to dismiss the Aussies for 60.
Then to seal the Test and secure the return of the Ashes England lost in his debut series, Stokes took a Test-best 6-36, swinging the visitors into submission. It was his second six-for in Tests, both coming against the old enemy, the other a 6-99 effort in Sydney in 2014, and showed once again his love for the big stage, with it drawing the best performances out of him.
