They are used to dealing with floods at New Road but on Friday the famous old ground was hit by a hurricane. It went by the name of Ben Stokes, the newly crowned Test captain unleashing a jaw-dropping 88-ball 161 on his return for Durham and breaking the record for sixes in a County Championship innings.
Among the 17 blows that soared over the rope there was also a flirtation with the fabled six sixes in an over, a feat only two men – Sir Garfield Sobers in 1968 and Ravi Shastri in 1985 – have achieved in first-class cricket. Once Stokes sent the first five deliveries of Josh Baker’s 20th over into the crowd, bringing up a 64-ball century, a hush descended: could a third member be about to join this elite club? It was not to be, however, Stokes duffing his contact with the final ball from Worcestershire’s 18-year-old left-arm spinner and seeing a one-bounce four result. Some 34 runs had been raided from the over but one would scarcely have known it, Stokes recoiling in frustration at an opportunity missed. What a ridiculous sport.
