County Championship: Ben Stokes hits 34 runs in a single over, smacks 64-ball ton

England’s newly minted Test skipper Ben Stokes has made a roaring comeback to the sport. He smashed a 64-ball ton while playing for Durham in a County Championship Division 2 fixture against Worcestershire at New Road in Worcester. He got to the three-figure mark smashing a whopping 34 runs in a single over bowled by left-arm spinner Josh Baker. Perhaps Stokes missed out on the historic six sixes in an over heroics by a whisker, as the final ball of the over landed just ahead of the boundary ropes.

It happened in the 117th over of the innings when Durham batters had already grounded the opposition bowlers with some aggressive batting. Ben Stokes was already batting on 70 off 59 deliveries and he unleashed on the spin bowler smacking him for five successive sixes. The first ball of the over went over the long-on area while the southpaw smashed the next one over the deep mid-wicket fielder.

For the next three maximums, Ben Stokes showed off his hitting skills in ‘V’ range, smashing it over long-off and long-on areas while for the final delivery, it went down the ground only for the ball to fall short of the boundary and go for four. Though he missed out on the heroics, the left-handed batter had smashed 34 runs in one over. Wherein the fifth ball in the over, he also got to his century off just 64 balls.

The assault didn’t stop here and the carnage continued with England’s Test skipper reaching 147* off just 82 balls with 8 fours and 15 sixes by lunch break on Day 2. In total, during the six-hitting spree, he managed to hit 8 sixes in 10 balls.

As far as the match is concerned, Durham has already posted 549 runs for the loss of four wickets in 123 overs with Sean Dickson (104) and David Bedingham (135) being the other centurions in the innings. Josh Baker, the bowler who was at the receiving end of Stokes’ assault, has so far conceded 107 runs in 21 overs of bowling. Durham finally declared at 580-6.

6️⃣ 6️⃣ 6️⃣ 6️⃣ 6️⃣ 4️⃣

What. An. Over.

34 from six balls for @benstokes38 as he reaches a 64 ball century 👏#LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/yqPod8Pchm

— LV= Insurance County Championship (@CountyChamp) May 6, 2022

Ben Stokes’ first assignment as England captain is against New Zealand

Meanwhile, Ben Stokes will lead England in a full-time capacity in June, during the three-match Test series against New Zealand. He has a total of seven Tests to play during the home season which also includes one Test of the 2021 series remaining to be played against India. Interestingly, both, India and England’s Test captains are changed with Rohit Sharma taking over the reins from Virat Kohli who stepped down from the helm in the format earlier this year.