Stats: Ben Stokes crawls to a 102-ball fifty in the first ODI

The return of Ben Stokes to the ODI XI was much talked about. It was quite obvious because the England batting unit which already boasts of several big names. However, Stokes made into the XI in the place of Alex Hales, who was sidelined after picking an injury ahead of the series opener. The hosts were thrust into trouble by Kuldeep Yadav by the time Stokes walked out to bat at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

In the process of re-building the innings, the all-rounder put himself into a shield scoring at a low strike-rate. Stokes failed to increase his scoring rate as he failed to get going towards the end of the innings. He crawled to a 102-ball fifty and got out on the very next ball to Kuldeep. During his 103-ball stay, Stokes managed only two fours and added 93 runs for the 5th wicket with Jos Buttler who scored a 51-ball 53 making the scoreboard tick.

Stokes’ 102-ball fifty stands among the top ten slowest fifties in ODI cricket since the start of 2011. The slowest in these seven years was recorded by Pakistan skipper Mishab-ul-Haq who crawled to a 119-ball fifty in 2013 against the Windies. Stokes’ 102-ball fifty is the slowest ODI fifty by an England player in the last 13 years. Paul Collingwood’s 108-ball fifty in 2005 is the only slower ODI fifty for England than Stokes’ in the 21st century.

No other England player took more than 80 balls for their fifty since the 2015 CWC from where their dominance in ODI format started. This wasn’t the first time Stokes crawled throughout his innings in ODI format. The all-rounder scored 34 in 64 balls without hitting a boundary during the 2017 Champions Trophy semi-final against Pakistan. Thus, he recorded the longest innings of Champions Trophy to not include a boundary.

Slowest fifties in ODI cricket since the start of 2011:

(Stats as on July 12, 2018)