Archive tweet of Ben Stokes predicted highest individual ODI score

Ben Stokes has been making all the headlines in the recent past. Things started on a bright note for him when he was being tipped as the next Andrew Flintoff of the English cricket. Soon, a low phase or rather an off day followed in the ICC World T20 finals. Then came the second coming of the talented young all-rounder and there has been no stopping since then. Most recently, he made the big headlines by becoming the most expensive buy at the IPL Auctions 2017 and was roped in by the Rising Pune Supergiant.

There is nothing that Ben Stokes can’t do on the field – he bats, he bowls and he fields magnificently well as well. Now, an archive tweet made by him back in the year 2011 reveals a new talent in him. A very certain Nostradamus can be seen in the English player. The story dates back to December 8, 2011 when India played West Indies at Indore in the 4th ODI of West Indies tour to India.

An onsong Virender Sehwag clobbered a belligerent 219 off mere 149 balls with 25 fours and 7 sixes. He had then created history by scoring the highest individual score in ODI cricket, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 200 against South Africa at Indore. In the match, Sehwag looked good for more but had to perish in the 47th over when Kieron Pollard got his dismissed.

It was just then that Ben Stokes took to social media site Twitter to predict that had Sehwag batted the entire 50 overs, he would have finished with a score of unbeaten 264. He had tweeted, “This bloke is unreal,if be bats the hole 50overs what will he end up on??my guess is 264*”.

This bloke is unreal,if be bats the hole 50overs what will he end up on??my guess is 264*

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) December 8, 2011

Albeit Sehwag could not achieve that figure, it was another Indian player who scored the exact same number of runs to register his name in the record books as the highest individual score in ODI cricket after breaking Sehwag’s record of 219. Rohit Sharma hit a blitzkrieg 264 off 173 balls with 33 fours and 9 sixes in an ODI fixture against Sri Lanka at Kolkata on November 13, 2014. Only the not out prediction did not go right as Sharma perished on the last ball of the innings.