Ben Stokes eyes another battle with Dean Elgar at Old Trafford

Star England all-rounder Ben Stokes turned the heat on South Africa at The Oval. First, he scored a significant ton with the bat to get England’s first innings total to a respectable 353 and then he followed it up with a lively spell of 2/51 in the second innings, during which he was on a hat-trick too.

Stokes relished battle with Elgar

Stokes well and truly was adjudged the Man of the Match for his fine performance during the third Test. For South Africa, the only positive came out of this Test was the second innings century by opener Dean Elgar. The southpaw seemed unflustered with the wickets falling regularly at the other end and went on to register his 8th Test ton, which will go down as one of his toughest of his career. His 228-ball 136 won him a lot of praises from fellow and former cricketers.

Stokes can’t wait to renew the brief rivalry he shared with Elgar in London. The 26-year old peppered the left-hander with a barrage of short balls with a few even hitting Elgar. But the 30-year old stood firm at the crease and marched on in his quest of taking the Proteas to safety. Stokes confirmed that he relished the battle with Elgar and would look forward to another one in Manchester.

“I got a bit of confidence when I saw the ball carrying through nicely to [wicketkeeper] Jonny (Bairstow), bowling the aggressive stuff at Dean Elgar, trying to get him on the back foot,” he said.

“I try to get in a battle with the batsman – which stirs me up.

“I just sort of make it ‘I want to get you out, I want to try to get the better of you’.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t go that way – but there’s always another opportunity if it doesn’t go well in a certain spell.”

Elgar 1, Stokes 0

Stokes conceded that Elgar won the battle at The Oval but the Manchester will give the all-rounder another opportunity to have a go at him. Stokes also paid respect to Elgar’s staunch approach and credited the batsman for a fine hundred in testing conditions.

“Elgar got the better of me when I tried to go hard at him (on Monday), whereas (the night before) I rapped him on the gloves a couple of times.

“I was trying to carry that same type of approach, but he came out with a different attitude and decided to take it on.

“It’s great to be part of an individual battle – which I felt we had throughout the game.

“Huge credit has to go to Dean actually – it was a seriously gutsy hundred. He managed to get through everything.”

England have gained an unassailable lead of 2-1 with just one Test to go. Joe Root has had a mixed debut as captain. He will love to finish the first series as skipper on a high but must be wary of South Africa, who will come hard at the hosts.