5 Point approach: How Ben Stokes constructed his masterclass hundred

#4 Playing in front of the wicket

The left-hander played shots in the ‘V’ behind the bowler

While choosing his hitting areas, Stokes once again went to the old fashioned method of batting which is playing in the ‘V’ or playing with a vertical bat.

It is very interesting to note that Gujarat bowled 30 balls in the area between short and short of good length, and Stokes managed only 35 runs from it with a strike rate of 116.66. He smashed 68 runs from 28 balls at a strike rate of 242.85 for balls which were delivered in the good length region or at the full length.

Stokes strong in front of the wicket

	Runs	4’s	6’s	% of runs
In front of the wickets	85	1	1	82.52
Behind the wickets	18	6	5	17.47

This table indicates how Stokes was dominant in front of the wickets and the fact that all but two of his 13 boundaries were scored in this region is reflective as well.