Ben Stokes, conqueror of the game's most electrifying men

Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson might have each taken in Sunday's T20 World Cup final and held more than a bit of sympathy for Pakistan's pacemen.

It had been that trio of highly skilled fast bowlers that fulfilled a prophecy of administrators who had predicted their junior promise would one day transmute into international dominance when they finally played a Test altogether for the first time and promptly rolled England on their home turf for just 67.

Two days later, those three got crushed at the hand of Ben Stokes when he played one of Test cricket's great knocks to drag his side to an astonishing victory.

No innings, including his match-winning performance on Sunday evening that saw England crowned T20 champions at the MCG, will rival that Headingley masterpiece.

But what his latest decisive knock did do was cement his status as the modern game's greatest conqueror of fast bowlers.

"It's an amazing story really – it's a shame he did his documentary a year early, he could have added that in," a smiling England captain Jos Buttler said of Stokes' journey from 2016 T20 World Cup heartbreak to proven big-game match-winner, captured in a raw behind-the-scenes film released by Amazon earlier this year.

Cummins and Hazlewood, both part of the Australian side that failed to qualify out of the group stage of this tournament, might have watched on with a feeling of déjà vu as Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi were left dumbfounded by Stokes.

This was not the bludgeoning power and jaw-dropping stroke-play that Stokes employed on that final day in Leeds, nor the analogous traits he displayed in his other famous hands; his 2019 World Cup heroics, his blistering 258 in Cape Town in 2016, his rapid 101 at Lord's in 2015.

Ironically, given T20 cricket typically demands exactly that kind of brute force, Stokes instead relied on shrewd judgement and game awareness. 

Yet the similarities to Headingley, and the others, were there.

Here, again, was Stokes crushing the souls of men who possess the game's most electrifying skill.

Rauf, the fastest bowler of the match, clenched his jaw in frustration as Stokes left his first ball that nearly hit his stumps and then played and missed the next. Later, Rauf eyed him with bewilderment when he again went past his outside edge.

Naseem, the teenager whose figures of 0-30 from four overs do not come close to doing justice to how well he bowled, enticed two play-and-misses from as many balls.

Even Shaheen, who did not bowl a single ball to Stokes, had reason to curse him. His second spell was cut short a ball in after the knee injury he had suffered in the field proved too painful. Stokes seized the moment, carting his replacement, Iftikhar Ahmed for a four and a six to relieve mounting pressure.

The despair, from all three, was palpable; Naseem gasped in frustration. Rauf let the sleeve of his jumped hang over his eyes as he trudged to fine leg. Shaheen limped off, beaten and broken.

"That's what makes Ben so good," said Moeen Ali, who shared in a 48-run stand with Stokes, the biggest partnership of the match. "He just soaks it in and reads the situation."

At its core, the battle between Stokes' England and the pace trio that brought the MCG to life pitted the best of England – the aggressive, fearless batting intent that has defined their white-ball reign – against the best of Pakistan – their endless supply of dramatic and enchanting fast bowlers.

In truth, both triumphed on Sunday.

"If you look at how our seamers bowled to him, they beat his bat quite often," said Pakistan's Shan Masood. "But he was there until the end, he took it on him(self), he soaked in the pressure and he finished the game.

"That's what big-game players do and certainly Ben Stokes is a world-class player."

That Stokes' international T20 record coming into the tournament – his average is a touch above 20, his strike-rate a touch below 130 and his fifty against Pakistan was his first in 36 innings – came in for sharp scrutiny mattered little.

"There were a lot of question marks over Ben at the start (of the World Cup)," said Moeen.

"But these are the games that you need him – not just because it's a big occasion but those tight games when the wicket is doing a bit and there's a good bowling attack, or conditions are a bit difficult, he's the guy who steps up.

"He's a special player.

"In any team you want someone like Stokesy. People talk about his strike-rate, his average, his scores – but you've got to have him on your team."

Stokes may now be the game's most admired performer in clutch moments.

Yet it was not always that way.

Memories of the 2016 T20 World Cup final would haunt him for years after Carlos Brathwaite famously blazed the allrounder for four consecutive sixes to seal the most memorable victory in that tournament's history.

His lion-hearted effort to overcome New Zealand – twice – in the 2019 ODI World Cup decider plus his Ashes heroics during that same northern summer dispelled any notion that handling pressure was an issue.

Stokes' famous words to Jofra Archer before the Super Over of the 2019 final that "today will not define you as a player" underlined just how he had processed the disappointment of 2016.

"I can always remember his words to Jofra about 'these things don't define you'," said Buttler. "He's never let that 2016 final push him back. The things he's gone on to achieve in his career since then is just amazing.

"He's a true match-winner and he's been in those scenarios time and time again. He's got a lot of know-how on how to do that.

"It certainly wasn't his most fluent innings and he certainly didn't time the ball as well as he can. But you know he was never going to go down without a fight. We're immensely lucky to have him and he's one of the great players of England cricket."

Men's T20 World Cup 2022

Semi-final 1: Pakistan beat New Zealand by seven wickets

Semi-final 2: England beat India by 10 wickets

Final: England beat Pakistan by five wickets

Click here for all 2022 T20 World Cup results