England will start the final day at The Oval 40 for 3, still 281 short of New Zealand’s target and with only six wickets in hand. The tourists, sharper with both bat and ball, look on course to square the series and set up a decider in Nottingham.
Ben Stokes is watching all this from Chester-le-Street. Left out after breaking England’s post-midnight curfew in a Chelsea nightclub – an incident that also involved Gus Atkinson and a Saracens rugby player – the all-rounder chose to keep his eye in for Durham, making 95 against Northamptonshire. Head coach Brendon McCullum questioned Stokes’ “mental state” earlier in the week; investigations by the ECB and the independent Cricket Regulator are ongoing and will influence Monday’s squad announcement for Trent Bridge.
On the ground in south London, Josh Tongue became the first England player to say plainly that Stokes has been missed. The fast bowler, whose match figures are 3 for 161 from 40 overs, made his Test debut under Stokes last summer.
“Stokesy is an unbelievable player,” Tongue said. “Obviously I made my debut when he was captain, so I’ve got huge respect for Stokesy. It’s always nice seeing him get some runs as well.”
England’s balance without him has looked awkward. With no pace-bowling all-rounder, they felt unable to select a specialist spinner; tidy overs from Joe Root and Harry Brook have covered that gap only partially. Root, standing in as captain, will resume on 75 not out – still England’s best hope of something remarkable – but Tongue admitted the void is obvious.
“We’ve missed him,” Tongue said, “but obviously we’ve got a lot of leaders in our team as well. Rooty, stepping in as captain, is obviously an unbelievable player and an unbelievable leader as well. It’s been good.”
Root has run a typically open dressing-room. “We obviously have our little debriefs at the end of days’ play,” Tongue explained, “and we always go around the lads and we try and say as much as we can if we got things wrong on the day and then obviously praise each other as well.”
Durham officials have tried to calm talk that Stokes is unravelling. Chief executive Tim Bostock told the BBC he was “bemused” by much of the commentary. Head coach Ryan Campbell reported Stokes in “good spirits” during training.
In the middle, those spirits translated into near-centurion fluency. Will Rhodes, who put on 153 with Stokes, enjoyed the view: “It’s nice to see how Stokesy goes about his business,” Rhodes said. “It’s not often you’re standing at the other end and you feel inferior to someone. Nobody in the crowd’s come to watch me bat, so it was nice to go about my work pretty quietly.”
Statistics underline why England are so keen for a swift return. Despite modest returns with the bat recently, Stokes is the side’s second-highest wicket-taker – behind Tongue – since last summer. That bowling cushion frees the selectors to pick a frontline spinner or an extra batter. Without it, the line-up has looked short either of control or depth, depending on which gap they try to plug.
None of this guarantees a miracle on Sunday. New Zealand hold all the cards after Daryl Mitchell’s disciplined hundred and Neil Wagner’s four quick strikes late on day four. But Root is at the crease, Jonny Bairstow is due next, and the pitch, although offering variable bounce, remains decent for stroke-play. An early partnership could yet unsettle the visitors.
Still, even the most optimistic England supporter would swap hope for the all-round certainty of their absent talisman. Whether the governing bodies allow that swap in Nottingham will be known soon enough.
