England’s Test captain Ben Stokes smacked a quickfire Full century against New Zealand in 3rd of the 4-match ODI series here at Kia Oval. Stokes is making his comeback in One day cricket through this series, an year after retiring from the format as he thought 50-over cricket was becoming unsustainable for him.
It goes without saying that Ben Stokes has been a key player for England over the last few years, helping them win back-to-back ICC titles. He played a man of the match winning knock against New Zealand in the final of the 2019 ICC CWC as England won their maiden CWC title.
Since then Stokes has gone on to play more important knocks like the one during 2019 Ashes, which helped England save the Ashes series at home soil. In 2022, his effective All-round performance was monumental in the Three Lions’ 2nd ICC T20 World Cup win at the Land down under.
He only needs the ICC World Test Championship title to complete the set. But the real reason for his comeback in ODIs is actually to help England defend the CWC title. Just like he brought Moeen Ali back from Test retirement, One-day captain Jos Buttler did the same to Stokes whose return to ODIs wasn’t something that we were expecting.
Stokes cited that he wanted to manage workload and in order to keep the right balance, he was leaving ODIs. But when its about the pride of representing your country at the World cup stage it is normal to come out of retirement.
What a moment for Ben Stokes – 4th ODI century in just 76 balls.pic.twitter.com/gYEO8eEZ0R
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 13, 2023
Thus the New Zealand series holds a lot of significance as it will bring him in-sync with his team mates and bring rhythm to his game. And by the looks of his performance he has settled-in pretty well. He scored an half-century on his first game since returning, unfortunately for a losing cause.
He scored 1 in the following ODI and to increase England’s chances of taking a lead in the 4-match series, Ben Stokes struck a fantastic Century. The 32-year-old scored his highest individual score – 182 off 124 deliveries powered by a strike rate of 146.77.
His 3rd ODI century helped England set up a target of 369 but the total also required a 96-run inning from Dawid Malan while skipper Jos Buttler contributed 38 runs off 24.
