THE sun-baked Rose Bowl staged the Ben Stokes Show yesterday. With four of the original cast injured, those left standing were mere extras as the budding colossus bestrode the arena.

It is not every day that a 19- year-old starts by taking three wickets in an over then scores 90 runs in the afternoon session and goes on to complete a century. The cake didn’t need any more icing but Stokes capped it all off with a sensational effort to emulate Gary Sobers.

He thrashed the first five balls of an over from left-arm spinner Liam Dawson for six, but the final one was speared into his pads and produced only a leg bye.

Stokes said: “I could not have asked for anything better.

“I did a lot of work on my bowling in the nets with England Lions and it has helped my control of both the inswinger and outswinger.

“When I hit the five sixes I just decided after the first one to try to keep going. He bowled the last ball very well, it was quick and down the side and I couldn’t do anything about it.’’ While Sobers famously hit six sixes in an over off Glamorgan’s Malcolm Nash at Swansea, the feat has never been achieved in a first-class game on English soil.

Stokes launched his onslaught immediately after completing a 135-ball century, which included just the one six, a straight drive off Danny Briggs.

The first six sailed serenely over mid-wicket, the second was clubbed straight, the third was swept behind square and the last two flew almost into the stratosphere, clearing ten rows of tiered seating into the car park at long-on.

Although Dawson was originally seen as a promising spinner, he is now considered much more of a batsman and might not have bowled had Hampshire’s attack not been seriously depleted by injuries to Simon Jones and Dominic Cork After finishing with six for 68 in the morning, Stokes was on 135 not out when Durham declared their second innings on 310 for three, leading by 489.

They had 20 overs to bowl and might have regretted not giving Stokes the new ball as Steve Harmison tried to defy his arm injury but was unable to find any kind of direction.

There were two wides in his three overs, which cost 23 runs as Hampshire reached 87 without loss.