{"id":749436,"date":"2026-06-20T20:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749436\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T20:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T20:03:11","slug":"ben-stokes-england-captain-makes-95-for-durham-as-national-team-struggle-in-new-zealand-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749436\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes: England captain makes 95 for Durham as national team struggle in New Zealand Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Batting at number five, Stokes came to the middle with Durham 30-3 on day two, in reply to their opponents’ 450 all out.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old put on a 153-run fourth-wicket partnership with Will Rhodes.<\/p>\n

Stokes was dismissed just after stand-in captain Joe Root and Harry Brook took England past 100-3, chasing an unlikely 463 to beat New Zealand<\/a> in the second Test.<\/p>\n

Stokes and pace bowler Gus Atkinson are under investigation for their part in an incident in a London venue<\/a> after England’s first-Test victory, when they broke the team’s midnight curfew.<\/p>\n

It is understood the process is progressing to a point<\/a> where a path for the pair to come back is cleared, although an official announcement may not arrive until the conclusion of the second Test.<\/p>\n

While all outcomes remain possible, there is a growing likelihood Stokes is back to lead England for the third and final Test at Trent Bridge, which starts on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Resuming on 388-6,<\/a> Northamptonshire opener Ricardo Vasconcelos reached 187, two more than his previous career high score, before being caught behind off the bowling of Matthew Potts.<\/p>\n

The England seamer then bowled Conway and Justin Broad, before Callum Parkinson had Liam Guthrie caught to wrap up the Northamptonshire innings.<\/p>\n

Ben Sanderson dismissed openers Alex Lees and Ben McKinney and Conway had David Bedingham caught behind, before Rhodes and Stokes steadied the ship.<\/p>\n

Having seen Stokes dismissed by Conway, Rhodes was also removed by the Australian quick for 62, becoming the third player to edge to Vasconcelos behind the stumps.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to see how Stokesy goes about his business,” said Rhodes.<\/p>\n

“It’s not often you’re standing at the other end and you feel inferior to someone. <\/p>\n

“Nobody in the crowd’s come to watch me bat so it was nice to go about my work pretty quietly.”<\/p>\n

Sanderson claimed the wickets of Graham Clark and Kasey Aldridge later in the session, finishing with overnight figures of 4-81 as Durham closed on 302-7, trailing by 148.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Batting at number five, Stokes came to the middle with Durham 30-3 on day two, in reply to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-749436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}