England’s build-up to the World Cup in India next month had gone stale before Stokes’ sprinkle of stardust
But even then, England fell to a shock defeat by Ireland and needed gritty, characterful innings from Stokes in their final group match against Sri Lanka and again in the final against Pakistan to get over the line.
This is okay but it tells you how important Stokes’ influence is on this white-ball group. Without him they would have had no chance of defending their title in India. With him they have a shot. It’s instructive that speaking after his innings on Wednesday, Stokes, who before this series had not played an ODI for 14 months, admitted: “There was a couple of times where I was just looking at the scoreboard and I actually just had to check myself again and realise how many overs we had left to go. I realised you definitely do have much more time than you think. It’s just familiarising myself again with the ebbs and flows of 50-over cricket.
It was, for large parts, pure chaos – the kind of chaos we have not seen since, well, the last Ashes Test back at The Oval six weeks ago. This is what made the Ashes so gloriously unpredictable and such compelling viewing. Indeed, this felt like Stokes’ totemic final-day innings in the second Test against Australia at Lord’s, when he also bludgeoned nine sixes as he did on Wednesday.
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