Ben Stokes of England celebrates with Dom Bess and Zak Crawley after taking the wicket of Alzarri Joseph of the West Indies (not pictured) during Day Three of the 1st #RaiseTheBat Test Series between England and The West Indies at The Ageas Bowl on July 10, 2020
England's stand-in skipper Ben Stokes on Friday added another feather to his crammed hat as he became the second-fastest cricketer to reach the Test double of 4000 runs and 150 wickets. He achieved the milestone following his third dismissal in the innings, of Alzarri Joseph, in the Southampton opener of the Test series against West Indies.
With the dismissal of Joseph, Stokes joined former England all-rounder and the legendary, Ian Botham and four other greats of the game in the club of 4000 Test runs and 150-plus wickets. The others in the list are Windies great Gary Sobers, former South African cricketer Jacques Kallis, India's Kapil Dev and ex-New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori. Only Sobers reached the milestone faster (63 Tests) than Stokes (64).
Earlier in the morning, Stokes trapped Kraigg Brathwaite, dismissing the opener for 65, and picked up the rest three in the final session which began with the dismissal of Windies skipper Jason Holder. Setting him up with the short ball angled in, Stokes lured Holder into playing his favourite hook shot. But the ball found Jofra Archer in the deep, cutting short his innings to only five runs off 14 deliveries.
Stokes then dismissed Joseph to take his 150th wickets and extended his tally by one more with the dismissal of Shane Dowrich.
West Indies were wrapped up for 318, with the visitors taking a 110-run lead in the first Test.
