Ben Stokes stepped up as England’s leader as they came up just short in pursuit of 371 in a thrilling second Ashes Test.
England’s captain threatened another trademark miracle to rival his efforts in both the World Cup final and the Headingley Ashes Test in the unforgettable summer of 2019, but on this occasion his 155 was not quite enough to get his side out of jail.
Here, the PA news agency looks at Stokes’ batting and bowling record since his appointment as captain.
Captain fantastic
Since taking on the captaincy full-time in June of last year, Stokes has been the figurehead for England’s new aggressive approach and his statistics reflect the shift in tone.
Most noticeable is his strike rate, up from 57.4 runs per hundred balls across 79 Tests prior to his appointment to a fraction over 70 in the 15 games since he took charge.
That has helped him average 39.40, compared to 35.89 before last June, scoring 867 runs in 24 innings with two hundreds and two fifties.
He ranks fifth among England run-scorers in that time with his and coach Brendon McCullum’s influence on the team even more pronounced – Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Duckett all have ‘Bazball’ strike rates north of 90, with Ollie Pope, Joe Root and Zak Crawley also in the 70s and ahead of Stokes.
That is even more pronounced in the current series, with the new approach experiencing its first questions amid a flurry of rash dismissals – particularly in the first innings at Lord’s as Duckett, Pope and Root all perished on the hook before Stokes demonstrated a willingness to duck the short ball.
Only bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson have a lower strike rate in the series than Stokes’ still brisk 62.42 – even Josh Tongue has scored his 20 runs at 66.67. Stokes is England’s leading run-scorer with 216, four ahead of Duckett, while his average of 54 trails only Root’s 64.
Stokes’ bowling has taken something of a back seat as captain as he seemingly saves himself for the key moments, partly due to a lingering knee injury.
He has bowled in only 20 of 29 opposition innings, compared to 126 of 150 previously. That brings him down from 1.6 bowling innings per match to 1.3 and he averages 10.1 overs per innings compared to 13.3 previously.
His average and strike rate have both improved slightly to 31.69 and a wicket every 53 balls respectively, though he is yet to add to his four five-wicket hauls. His economy is marginally worse than before at 3.58 runs per over.
Six-shooter
Stokes leads England’s new era in six-hitting, with nine in his blistering Lord’s innings taking him ahead of Brook to 28 in 24 innings.
He recently claimed the overall Test record, moving ahead of none other than McCullum’s 107 with two in February’s Test against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui before stretching his total to 118 with Sunday’s efforts.
Former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist is the only other man to hit 100 Test maximums and of the trio, Stokes has the highest ratio of sixes compared to fours – 14.4 per cent of his Test boundaries have cleared the ropes, compared to 12.1 and 12.9 per cent for McCullum and Gilchrist respectively.
The next two men short of 100 – Chris Gayle with 98 sixes and Jacques Kallis with 97 – each hit well over 1,000 fours, with 8.6 per cent of Gayle’s boundaries being sixes and only 6.1 per cent for Kallis.
Stokes hits a six every 85 balls on average in Tests, behind only Gilchrist’s 68 balls among that leading group.
Bayern star Kane scores 400th senior goal
Harry Kane surpassed the 400-goal mark for his senior career as his double helped Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Kane moved within one of the milestone as he put Bayern 1-0 up after just nine minutes, coolly finishing from close range after Konrad Laimer's pass had set him up.
Then, after Frankfurt levelled through Hugo Ekitike, Kane slotted home a penalty with typical aplomb following a foul on Thomas Muller to move himself onto 400 career goals and ultimately lead Bayern to victory.
Kane scored 280 of his goals in 435 appearances for Tottenham, overtaking Jimmy Greaves to become the club's all-time leading scorer when he netted for the 267th time in Spurs colours against Manchester City last February.
His tally of 213 Premier League goals, meanwhile, puts him just 47 behind the competition's all-time leader Alan Shearer, who scored 260 times for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.
Kane is also the most prolific player in England's history, his 62 goals for the Three Lions coming in 89 international appearances.
He memorably missed the chance to surpass Wayne Rooney's previous record of 53 when he blazed a penalty over the crossbar in the Three Lions' quarter-final defeat to France at the 2022 World Cup, only to clinch his place in history in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy three months later.
The very first goal of Kane's senior career came in League One during a loan spell with Leyton Orient as they thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 in January 2011.
That was the first of five goals Kane scored in O's colours, while he also netted nine times in a loan spell with Millwall in 2011-12 and twice during a stint with Leicester City the following season.
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
Chase outdone by opposite number Paudel as West Indies A suffer four-wicket loss to Nepal
West Indies A’s tour of Nepal got off to an unfortunate start, after they suffered a four-wicket loss to their host in a high scoring opening fixture of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Set a formidable 204 by West Indies A, Nepal’s thrilling victory, which was set up by a captain’s knock from Rohit Paudel, etched their names in the history books, as they successfully got to their target at 206-6 with two balls to spare.
Paudel smashed a 54-ball 112, including 10 fours and two sixes to see his team to a 1-0 lead in the series, which West Indies Head coach Darren Sammy said offers his team a chance to define roles and personnel more clearly for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad.
However, the Caribbean side’s all-round effort was found wanting, as only captain Roston Chase (74), Alick Athanaze (47) and Keacy Carty (38) offered any resistance with the bat, while only Obed McCoy (2-34) and Matthew Forde (2-49) had some semblance of success with the ball.
Scores: West Indies A 204-5 (20 overs); Nepal 206-6 (19.4 overs)
Asked to take first strike, after losing the toss, West Indies A suffered an early blow, as they lost Johnson Charles (zero) off the last ball of the opening over, with 16 runs on the board. Andre Fletcher (13) stuck two sixes off five balls, before he too departed via the run-out route, leaving West Indies A at 43-2 in the fourth over.
However, Athanaze went about business, striking three sixes and five fours in a 25-ball knock, as he put on 43 for the third wicket with Chase, prior to his demise. From there, Chase and Carty added another 60 runs in a fourth-wicket stand that defined the innings.
Carty’s 38 off 26 balls, included two fours and three sixes, while Chase, who anchored the innings with a captain’s knock, struck nine fours and two sixes in his 46-ball 74. Kadeem Alleyne, on 14, and Keemo Paul, one, were left not out.
No Nepal bowler took more than one wicket.
With runs on the board, West Indies A would have felt confident of wrapping up a win, even more so, after Forde and McCoy combined to remove openers Anil Sah (five) and Kushal Bhurtel (16) to have Nepal at 38-2 in the fifth over.
West Indies remained in the ascendancy when Fletcher and Charles combined to run out Kushal Malla (16), leaving their host on the ropes at 82-3 at the halfway mark.
However, Paudel showed class, in not only reviving his team’s innings, but pushed them all the way with some aggressive stroke play, assisted by wayward bowling from West Indies A attack at times. Dipendra Singh Airee (24) offered support to his captain in getting Nepal across the line for a famous victory.
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