5 Point approach: How Ben Stokes constructed his masterclass hundred
Ben Stokes has always been considered a genuine all-rounder but ever since Carlos Brathwaite took him for four sixes in the world T20 finals, it is his bowling which is mostly talked about.
Even in IPL 2017, prior to his match against Gujarat Lions, he had won two Man of the Match awards and both were for his bowling. But everything changed after his masterclass batting performance yesterday.
Extra Cover: 5 things that helped Ben Stokes vs Gujarat Lions
Coming to bat in the second over at the score 10/3 while chasing 162, the England all-rounder produced one of the best hundreds in T20 cricket. It included massive sixes and powerfully struck fours, but what stood out during this innings was Stokes’ determination to stay until the end and his skills of constructing a big score.
Here, we talk about the five major features of this batting masterpiece which enabled Rising Pune Supergiant to win their sixth game.
#1 The old-fashioned approach to batting
‘Go back to the basics’ is a popular advice given by coaches to batsmen when batting is not easy; Ben Stokes did exactly the same. He came to bat in a crunch situation which required him to bring out his best for mere survival.
The southpaw responded to the challenge by approaching the good old method of batting which is to play safely in the beginning by not looking for big hits and then once set, going for the high-risk strokes.
Balls | Runs | Strike Rate | 4’s | 6’s | Dot balls |
0-10 | 12 | 120 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
11-20 | 14 | 140 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
21-30 | 17 | 170 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
31-40 | 12 | 120 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
41-50 | 18 | 180 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
51-60 | 25 | 250 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
61-63 | 5 | 166 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Total | 103 | 163.49 | 7 | 6 | 17 |
Stokes began his innings quietly by scoring 26 runs in his first 20 balls and then slowly accelerated, accumulating 29 runs from his next 20 balls and went berserk at the end as he scored 48 runs from his last 23 balls.
By curbing his natural aggressive style of batting in the beginning, the southpaw displayed tremendous mental control and by smashing bowlers during the latter stages he proved his hitting prowess.