England’s newly-appointed Test Captain Ben Stokes smashed a 64-ball century in his first county appearance of the summer on Friday against Worcestershire. It was the fastest first-class century by a Durham batter in the history of county championships. With this feat, he eclipsed the record for the fastest first-class ton in Durham’s 30-year history, scored by Paul Collingwood in 75 deliveries.
Stokes arrived at the crease following the early dismissal of Scott Borthwick who was trapped in front by Ben Gibbon. The all-rounder wasted no time in taking charge and started punishing the opposition bowlers. He stole the show by launching an assault on Josh Baker.
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It was the 117th over of the Durham innings when Stokes hammered baker for five consecutive sixes to bring up his memorable hundred. He couldn’t end the over with a record six sixes. Instead, he settled with a boundary and amassed a total of 34 runs from the over.
The official Twitter handle of the English County Championship shared the video of Stokes’ heroics on the second day of the fixture.
“6 6 6 6 4 What. An. Over. 34 from six balls for @benstokes38 as he reaches a 64 ball century,” the caption of the post read.
Stokes continued his rolling stroke play, scoring 161 runs off just 88 before falling prey to Brett DOliveira in the 127th over. He smashed a total of 17 sixes and 8 boundaries during his stay in the middle. The 30-year-old also featured in a colossal 220-run partnership with teammate David Bedingham who scored 135 runs off 175 deliveries with the help of 2 sixes and 15 boundaries.
He is playing in the County Championship for the first time since July last year when he was unable to finish Durham’s game with Warwickshire after being called up to captain England in their one-day international series against Pakistan when an entirely new 18-man squad had to be named because of a Covid outbreak.
This was Stokes’ first county appearance since getting appointed as the Test captain of England cricket team. On April 28, he was named the successor of Joe Root by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“This is a real privilege and I’m excited about getting started this summer. I want to thank Joe (Root) for everything he has done for English cricket and for always being a great ambassador for the sport all across the world,” he had said.
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