Comedian Paul Sinha hails Ben Stokes over his awe-inspiring knock that helped him battle Parkinson’s disease

Dashing England all-rounder Ben Stokes made his country proud for the second time in as many months. While he played a key part in helping the Three Lions winning their maiden World Cup in July, his single-handed effort saw England levelling the ongoing Ashes at Leeds on Sunday. Requiring 359 to win, the hosts were nine down for 286 but an incredible 76-run partnership for the final wicket between Stokes and tail-ender Jack Leach saw them reaching home with a wicket to spare.

Stokes hit 135 not out in the match, his second successive ton in the series, to end up as the man of the match, just as he did in the drawn game at Lord’s. The English cricket fans were ecstatic over Stokes’ feats and even the celebrities didn’t forget to celebrate the moment. ‘The Chase’ star Paul Sinha too came to praise Stokes saying the latter saved his summer and even helped him ‘on the road to emotional recovery’ by playing the phenomenal knock that saw England levelling the series 1-1 with two games to go.

The 49-year-old Sinha, who is of Indian descent, had revealed earlier this year that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He also revealed in an emotional blog post that it was not easy for him to cope with the news at first and even called it “devastating”.

However, on Monday, he said in another blog how Stokes’ heroics on Sunday helped him find happiness and excitement from sport, as he used to do. Sinha found little solace even after his favourite team Liverpool won the Champions League final in June because of his illness. “I was flat, depressed, guilty about spoiling my sister’s big evening, tetchy and short-tempered,” Lad Bible quoted him as writing.

“A horrible thought crossed my mind. Am I destined to spend the rest of my life never again getting over emotional about sport?”

‘Then, there was yesterday’

But “then there was yesterday”, Sinha added, referring to England’s victory as “a day’s cricket that managed to make the Greatest World Cup Final Ever seem like an ephemeral irrelevance in comparison”.

The comedian said although bad umpiring, captaincy and fielding helped England’s cause, they also needed superlative skill and hailed Stokes for his awe-inspiring determination. He said Stokes helped him forget his aches, pains, anxieties and weaknesses and saw him losing in his “happy place”.

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