Ben Stokes comes agonisingly close to the perfect over hitting five sixes and a four

Ben Stokes has fallen agonisingly short of hitting six sixes in an over in his first innings since being named England’s Test captain. Stokes hit five sixes in a row off Worcestershire spinner Josh Baker in Durham’s County Championship match at New Road.

He brought up his century off just 64 balls with the fifth six. However, after raising his bat, he could only hit a four off the final ball of the over.

Stokes was officially named England’s Test skipper last week. New managing director of cricket Rob Key said the all-rounder was the outstanding candidate to replace Joe Root.

And he has returned to action in astonishing style. Stokes put his feet up for the first day of the match in Worcester on Thursday as Durham piled on the runs.

But he was brought to the middle early on day two following the dismissal of captain Scott Borthwick. Stokes ticked along at just under a run a ball for the first 40 or so deliveries of his innings.

But he then set about taking apart the Worcestershire attack. And it was 18-year-old Baker on the end of a blistering performance.

In the 117th over of the innings, with Durham past 450, Stokes launched five sixes in a row. After celebrating an astonishing hundred, he attempted to launch another to make history.

But his straight drive just did not have enough on it to get over the boundary, so he had to settle for 34 off the over. He then hit the next two balls he faced from Joe Leach for six and has sped past team-mate David Bedingham, who reached a ton 45 minutes earlier.

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