Ben Stokes has long been used to grabbing a game by its ankles and dangling it upside down until the narrative emerges. It’s just that he probably didn’t expect to be doing it against Zimbabwe.
On a fleetingly competitive second day in Nottingham, the tourists — led by a memorable century from their 21-year-old opener Brian Bennett — had raced to 187 for three shortly before tea in reply to England’s mammoth 565 for six.
As Zimbabwe’s small but committed pockets of fans sang and danced in the stands, critics wondered if their why-oh-whys about the wisdom of staging this game in the first place had been premature.
Stokes had already watched as his second ball took Bennett’s outside edge on 89, only for Joe Root to somehow spill the chance at first slip. Now, his fourth delivery — a rapid leg-cutter — turned round Sikandar Raza and took the outside edge on the way through to Jamie Smith. On an unresponsive pitch, it felt against the run of play.
In his next over, Stokes made it go the other way, jagging one back into Wessly Madhevere, who to his despair inside-edged on to his stumps for a duck. At 199 for five, England had regained control.
At 265 all out, with the injured Richard Ngarava unable to bat, they enforced the follow-on. By the close, Zimbabwe were 30 for two, still 270 behind. Assuming the weather behaves, a three-day finish is on the cards.
England captain Ben Stokes finds movement off an unresponsive Trent Bridge pitch to claim the wickets of Sean Williams and Wessly Madhevere (pictured) as the hosts take control
Brian Bennett celebrates scoring Zimbabwe’s fastest ever Test century — off just 97 balls
England may have been concerned to see Sam Cook’s pace drop to the mid-70s late in the day
Three wickets for Shoaib Bashir — two of them with beauties that gave England an early-summer return on their apparently unshakeable faith — were a bonus.
But it was Stokes’s intervention that provided the pick-me-up. And it was precisely the kind of cutting-edge his team may require from their captain during the examinations to come against India and Australia.
Just as significantly, perhaps, Stokes declined to bowl another ball after going into tea with figures of 3.2–2–11–2, confirming his pre-match pledge to look after his body as he readjusts to Test cricket following hamstring surgery.
Up in the commentary box, Stuart Broad suggested his former team-mate had promised no spell would exceed five overs. Whatever the maths, it was a good start for this brave new world of short, sharp bursts.
Well though Bennett played — and his straight-driving was superb, accounting for a chunk of the 26 fours that studded his 143-ball 139 — England’s inexperienced pace attack endured a mixed day.
Sam Cook, the Essex debutant, went for 12 in the first over, before having Ben Curran caught at second slip with his 15th ball. And while Cook enjoyed little luck, especially against Bennett, Brendon McCullum will have noted that his pace dropped from low 80s to mid-70s by the time he opened Zimbabwe’s second innings. England’s head coach is not entirely obsessed with pace, but that kind of drop-off may test his resolve.
Josh Tongue, in his first Test in two years, was the quickest on show, reaching 90mph and clanging Sean Williams on the helmet as he ducked into one that followed him.
When Stokes wanted a battering ram, Tongue cheerfully obliged. Steaming in from round the wicket, he had Bennett caught twice in five deliveries at short leg by Pope — the first time, spectacularly, off a no-ball, the second a dolly as Bennett failed to ride the bounce.
Shoaib Bashir took three scalps in a promising start to a big summer for the England spinner
Gus Atkinson traps Bennett lbw in Zimbabwe’s second dig with the seamer finding his form
Stokes kept to his promise of protecting his body by only bowling 3.2 overs on day two
Gus Atkinson, meanwhile, was aiming to build on a glittering first year, and improved as the day went on, cleaning up the tail, then pinning Bennett leg-before for a single as Zimbabwe batted again. It meant Bennett ended the best day of his career having been dismissed twice in 11 balls. If anything summed up the truncated nature of their tour, this was it.
Amid it all, Bashir wheeled away in the only team in the country able to make him feel at home. Loaned out by Somerset to Glamorgan at the start of the season, he managed just two wickets at 152. But Stokes has never captained him with anything other than sensitivity, and his off-spinner responded.
He began by having Craig Ervine, Zimbabwe’s captain, caught low down at slip by Harry Brook from one that pitched on leg stump and turned across the left-hander. That made Bashir — who is not 22 until October — the youngest England bowler to claim 50 Test wickets.
And if his next success came from a misjudgement by Williams, who stayed back to an arm-ball and tamely played on, his third was out of the top drawer — a big off-break that bowled wicketkeeper Tafadzwa Tsiga through a gap the size of Nottingham’s Market Square.
It was more remarkable given that it was Bashir’s first ball back after a two-hour break, thanks to a split finger nail caused by a dropped return catch. The pain was quickly forgotten.
‘It’s every off-spinner’s dream to bowl one that rags back through the gate,’ he said. ‘It’s always nice to put an England shirt on. I feel I’m very well backed here. I’m backed in county cricket as well, but English cricket is my happy place. I walk into this team and feel 10ft tall because of the backing I get.’
Bashir’s success made a distant memory of the day’s early skirmishes, with Ollie Pope adding only two to his overnight 169 before he was caught behind off Tanaka Chivanga, and Brook helping himself to a 50-ball 58, including two pulled sixes in two balls off Blessing Muzarabani.
When Tongue had Ervine popping a simple catch to Pope at short leg to reduce Zimbabwe to seven for two as the shadows lengthened, a day of 14 wickets had ended with England firmly on top.
