"Come five o'clock on Tuesday evening, when England are searching for that last wicket, Stokes' innings will prove very handy for Joe Root. It enabled him to make a very positive declaration"
Monday 6 January 2020 16:58, UK
When England play in Cape Town, Ben Stokes is very much their Cape crusader.
There was a sense of déjà vu from four years previous as Stokes smeared South Africa's bowlers around and out of Newlands on Monday morning, racking up a rollicking 72 from 47 balls as he dominated a fourth-wicket stand of 92 with patient centurion Dom Sibley.
It wasn't quite his onslaught at the same stadium in 2016, when he plundered a record 130 runs before lunch on day two en route to the second-fastest double ton and fastest 250 in Test history.
But it was another reminder that, as Australia and New Zealand found out to their cost during Stokes' sparkling 2019 summer, that this is a man incredibly difficult to stop out in the middle.
Stokes looked well on course for his ninth Test century after creaming seven fours and three sixes against a Proteas side kind enough not to test him with the available new Kookaburra until he was on 26, by which time he had already belted Keshav Maharaj and Dwaine Pretorius.
But his hopes of two tons in as many Tests at Cape Town - a venue where he now averages 100.75 - were ended by Rassie van der Dussen, who did what Trent Boult couldn't in the World Cup final, by staying inside the boundary rope in the deep on the leg-side to catch Stokes.
Stokes out then, 28 runs short of three figures, but having swelled England's lead to 356, with his four, six, four in one Maharaj over a particular highlight as he pumped the spinner through midwicket, dumped him over his head and then thumped him away with a reverse-slog.
As the 28-year-old trudged off, he looked a little dejected - perhaps thinking he could have topped Gilbert Jessop's England-record 76-ball Test century against Australia at The Oval in 1902 - but he had produced what was required. England wanted quick runs. He got them. Job done.
Job done is becoming his thing with the bat.
Whether that's keeping his cool in the cauldron of the Cricket World Cup final at Lord's in July; scoring a Test century in the Ashes at the same ground a month later to tee up an ultimately-futile push for victory; or his greatest feat of all - Headingley - when he started barnacle-like and finished blisteringly to ensure England pulled off a remarkable one-wicket win over a shell-shocked Australia, he stands up for the team.
Stokes came into the side as an all-rounder but with his batting advancing, and his bowling becoming more limited, likely due to a dicky knee, he is now England's version of Jacques Kallis rather than Andrew Flintoff.
He has a role to play with the ball, of course, but he is chiefly a batsman. And a world-class one at that.
Stokes' Test batting average is 36 but that leaps to over 40 since the start of 2016 - a lean 2018 when he averaged only 26.85 and had you know what still hanging over his head preventing that number being greater.
Since the start of 2019, that has risen to 47, with only Australia's Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith and team-mates Joe Root and Rory Burns managing more Test runs than him in the previous calendar year.
Numbers only tell half the story, though, with Stokes' big innings also coming in big moments, another yardstick of how you grade someone as world class.
Headingley was the prime example, of course, but there was also his rollicking 85-ball hundred against New Zealand in the second innings at Lord's in 2015, after he had resuscitated England from 30-4 in their first innings with an almost as ebullient 92 from 94 deliveries.
Stokes played a similar role against South Africa at The Oval in 2016, hitting 112 after his side had slipped to 183-5 after electing to bat. Like the New Zealand game, that also ended in an England win.
"There is a part of me that looks at Stokes' average and thinks 'he is a better player than that, he should be averaging 45', but another part says, 'you know what, Ben plays the way he does for the team'," said Nasser Hussain, after South Africa closed on 126-2 in their improbable pursuit of a record 438 to win the second Test and take a 2-0 lead in the series.
"He wins games for England, as we have seen on a number of occasions. Come five o'clock on Tuesday evening, when England are searching for that last wicket, Stokes' innings will prove very handy for Joe Root.
"It enabled him to make a very positive declaration. This game is about putting bums on seats as Stokes does that every time."
Going forward, you get the feeling that he will principally be doing that with his batting and his fielding - let's not forget he snaffled five catches in South Africa's first innings in Cape Town - rather than his bowling.
Sure, there was that mammoth spell at Headingley that preceded his excellent innings as England ensured they were chasing what turned out to be a manageable target against Australia, but he has often been the fifth, sixth and, at Newlands on Monday, seventh bowler used by Root.
That's not because the captain doesn't value his deputy's bowling - far from it - but instead because he wants to protect his prize asset, one who is capable of winning games with the bat at different tempos. Equally at home as a smasher as he is a stabiliser.
Stokes is now a batsman who bowls a bit, with his seam used when England are in desperate need of wickets, as they were late on day four in Cape Town and may well be late into day five.
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