2019 Cricket World Cup: Ben Stokes goes from renegade to hero

Ben Stokes was the toast of England yesterday after leading his team to World Cup glory. Photo / Getty Images

The man who made it possible for England to stand on top of the world — Ben Stokes — was in danger of being remembered as an anti-hero.

Every great team has a kind of brute who refuses to take a backward step, who sees hope in despair.

England have built their one-day cricket revolution on intelligent scientific principles as well as freedom of expression.

But none of that guarantees the step across the threshold.

For that, you need a fighter like Stokes. And sometimes you need outrageous luck of the sort that fell his way in the final over when he threw himself headlong down the pitch to avoid being run out and deflected the ball to the boundary.

Being a more diplomatic sort these days, Stoke raised his arms to apologise to New Zealand, the land of his birth, but took the extra runs anyway as England staggered to a tie and a savage super-over shootout, which Jofra Archer somehow bowled his way to the end of under intolerable pressure.

When Archer dropped to his knees in relief, and to celebrate a world title 72 days after his England debut, it was Stokes who hugged him and reminded him of what he and this England team had accomplished.

Less than two years ago, Stokes was a pariah, a wasted talent, a lost boy who was suspended for an Ashes tour that England lost 4-0. His biography was a rap sheet of scrapes and silliness. Breaking his wrist punching a locker in the Caribbean was just one of the lunacies he wrote about (quite cheerfully) in his autobiography.

Back then, he seemed to accept his role as a renegade, as if change was beyond him and the call of the night too strong. Nobody in the England camp sees Stokes this way now. He is the over-trainer who has to be told to stop, the warrior who never shirks a challenge.

England's captain Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes embrace after winning the Cricket World Cup final match. Photo / AP

If Eoin Morgan was the thinker in this England side, Joe Root the anchor, Jason Roy the bully-opener and Jos Buttler the artistic destroyer, Stokes was the heir to Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff who could hunt down a team.

This was a World Cup final that left people holding their heads and trying to calm their heaving chests.

It was impossibly dramatic, spun out by a sadistic director to include a lucky escape for England, 241 runs for both sides and that cruel, 12-ball caper that left England exactly where New Zealand had been in the regulation 50 overs — needing two to win from one delivery.

Stokes was central to it all. He arrived with England's vaunted batting line-up fraying on a slow pitch.

What England needed against a nation of 4.79 million people who overachieve astonishingly in cricket was someone to restore order and put the grand design back on track.

The moment that told you Stokes could do it was when he strode down the wicket and brought England's hundred up by crashing James Neesham down the ground. Stokes was telling New Zealand their revels were about to end — that he and Buttler meant business. From there, the dream of a first world title in the 50-over game began to rise from its grave. When the game reached stalemate, Stokes was 84 not out.

Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer celebrate after winning the Cricket World Cup. Photo / Getty Images

No wonder a shattered Stokes was sent back out for the super over, where he pieced together 15 runs with Buttler and placed the onus back on New Zealand.

Buttler, the gentle soul, and Stokes, the macho man, were giving Archer something to aim at. Stokes has painful memories of late denouements. In the 2016 World Twenty20 final in Kolkata, he had 19 runs to defend when he bowled the last over to Carlos Brathwaite but saw four consecutive deliveries sail away for six.

Even that seemed not to deter him. The Bristol street brawl in 2017, however, might have finished his career. He was cleared of affray at Bristol Crown Court but was fined £30,000 and missed eight matches.

His absence from the following Ashes tour was among the factors that prompted Morgan and others to overhaul squad "culture" — a move that ultimately cost Alex Hales his place in this triumphant one-day side.

Stokes had two close calls in this unforgettable emotional marathon: the deflection for four, and a six that Trent Boult caught and threw back in while stepping on the boundary rope, thus rendering Martin Guptill's support catch irrelevant.

"I don't think there will be another ending like this in the history of cricket," Stokes said. "Jos and I knew if we'd be there close to the end, New Zealand would be under pressure. Not the way I wanted to do it, ball going off my bat like that, but I apologised to Kane."

Stokes has done a lot of apologising in his England career. Now he can see what dedication can do for you. When he turned the corner, hero status was out there waiting.