Moeen Ali insisted England cannot be wholly reliant on Ben Stokes to dig them out of trouble after the captain again starred with the bat on the second day of the Headingley Test Match.
There was a sense of optimism at the start of the day with locals Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow due to return to the crease, with hopes of the Yorkshire contingent performing for a home crowd.
However it was short lived, and Stokes walked out to the middle after Root was out on the second ball of the day.
England were floundering at 68 for four and 195 runs behind Australia’s first innings total of 263, when Stokes played in a similar fashion to his heroics at Lord’s just a week before.
He absorbed pressure as the wickets tumbled around him, and when number nine Mark Wood walked out and hit an entertaining 24 from eight, it sparked Stokes’ scoring shots.
The England captain brought up his 50 with a massive six, but had faced 86 balls before reaching the milestone. It was only afterwards that he began hitting into the stands.
When he was eventually out, giving Todd Murphy his first Ashes scalp, England had added 95 runs in 10.2 overs after lunch, and Stokes had 80 runs, including six fours and five sixes.
But Ali, who brought up his 199th and 200th Test scalps with the wickets of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, urged his side not to rely too heavily on the captain.
“He’s a brilliant player,” Ali said.
“It’s the situations more than anything, he loves those situations, he thrives off them. But we can’t rely on him all the time.”
While everyone will undoubtedly focus on Stokes’ impressive knock, it masks some of the cracks that have crept into the performance.
Jonny Bairstow, left, and Joe Root were out cheaply on day two at Edgbaston (Mike Egerton/PA)— (PA Wire)
Bairstow’s mistakes with the gloves now add up to eight missed chances, and England will hope that their four drops on the first day were just a fluke.
With the bat, Bairstow’s loose drive led to a wicket, and there were easy pickings for the Australian bowlers, not to detract from Pat Cummins’ impressive six-fer.
Even Ali admitted that the rest of England’s side have to step up and not rely on the efforts of their captain, who has been nursing a couple of injuries.
“We do have the very good players, dangerous players who we just need to come to the party as well as Ben. Ben’s playing brilliantly but there are runs out there for other players.
“He’s the one player in the world who everyone will be thinking about that situation, especially against Australia because he has done it a couple of times now.
“Whether it’s a white ball or a red ball, as long as he’s there you’ve always got a great chance of winning. He’s a brilliant player and a great captain, by the way. As long as he’s there, we’ve got a good chance.”
Even Australian head coach Andrew McDonald admitted that Australia cannot take full charge of the match when Stokes is at the crease.
“When Stokes is there you are never in total control. We have seen that over a period of time. We created a couple of opportunities so there was a bit of dysfunction there on our behalf,” McDonald said.
“Full credit to Ben, his way of batting with the tail is probably second to none.”
