ENG vs SA 2022: "Captain leading from the front"- Twitter erupts after Ben Stokes smashes his first-ever century as England Test captain
England skipper Ben Stokes led from the front against South Africa on Friday (August 28). He made light work of the South African bowlers and scored his maiden century as captain when his team needed him the most.
The southpaw scored 103 runs off 163 balls, which included three sixes and six boundaries. He stepped in when England struggled at 147/5 and helped steer his team to stretch their lead past 250 runs in their first innings against the Proteas in the second Test.
Stokes also shared a crucial 173-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Ben Foakes (113). The pair unsettled South Africa's bowling attack to help England take a commanding position in the Manchester Test.
The development comes days after England succumbed to a humiliating loss by an innings and 12 runs at Lordโs to go 0-1 down in the series.
Fans were quick to congratulate Ben Stokes as he led his team by example. Here are some reactions:
| @IGcomStokesy's first century as Test captain ๐
Scorecard/clips: ms.spr.ly/6011jdoit
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ #ENGvSA ๐ฟ๐ฆ | @IGcom https://t.co/MwaUBJY7Nk
Coming to the Test 1-0 down,the English captain has just played one of the brilliant innings of his career...A hundred to savour for the champion allrounder...Ben Stokesโค๏ธโค๏ธ
#ENGvSA #Stokes
๐ผBen Stokes/Foakes ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ #ENGvSA
He is quite an admirable character.
#BenStokes #Bazball ๐
Gritty century @benstokes38 โค๏ธโ๐ฅ
Captain Ben Stokes leading from the front ๐ฅ๐ฅ
#CricketTwitter
#ENGvsSA https://t.co/16S6A4mnIu
Ben stokes has scored his first 100 in 2nd innings of a test match
Now Ben stokes has 100s in all 4 innings of a test match
Making records every day ๐
Ben stokes becomes the first cricketer to score a 100 on his documentary release day
๐
BOOM! I love @benstokes38 - brilliant cricketer, brilliant leader, brilliant bloke. ๐๐๐ twitter.com/englandcricketโฆ
Hurried home to watch @benstokes38 bat and he didn't disappoint. Always nice to see him get runs and be happy.
#ENGvSA
First hundred for Ben Stokes as the England test Captain. Many more to go.
#ENGvsSA https://t.co/sn8ecP1F4k
Big day for Ben Stokes scoring a ๐ฏ as captain when the team needed it the most and on the day his documentary comes out on Amazon Prime. Stokesy has got big balls
Ben Stokes and Co. aim to level the Test series 1-1
England finally declared their first innings at 415/9 after they extended their lead to 264 runs against the visitors.
Anrich Nortje was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets in his bag. Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj added a couple of wickets each, while Simon Harmer and Lungi Ngidi settled for one wicket each.
The hosts will look to level in the three-match series.
South Africa, on the other hand, will be under pressure to deliver with three days left for the match.
Last week, Stokes made it clear that England will not abandon their so-called โBazballโ style of play despite a beating in the first Test.
โAbsolutely not. You know, I look at captains before me and they were always going to get criticized at times about the way that they wanted to play, and thatโs just part and parcel of the job.
He added:
โWe know well that when we perform to the capabilities that weโre capable of, then we can go out and put on an incredible performance like everybodyโs seen in the four games before. This is absolutely not a wake-up call or anything like that. It was just unfortunate weโre unable to execute in the way that we want to play this week.โ