Ben Stokes had raised the ball into the Old Trafford sky and now he raised the bat. Two celebrations, two days apart, two signs of an all-rounder back at the top of his trade. Stokes had done much in his first 114 Tests, some of it utterly implausible, but never the all-rounder’s double in the same match. And then, when there had been reasons to fear his powers were fading or his body failing, he did both.
Five wickets in an innings. A century. He became just the fourth Englishman to achieve both in the same Test after Tony Greig, Ian Botham and, rather improbably, Gus Atkinson. Stokes has never felt consumed by statistics but, as Joe Root showed the day before, they can be the byproduct of brilliance, especially in a sport with as many numbers as cricket.
