In 2010, during the regular March rounds of county preview days, Durham batsman Will Smith was asked about any youngster at the club it was worth keeping tabs on. “Ben Stokes, hands down,” came the reply. 

A surprise, not because of the answer itself but the speed with which it arrived. Smith, a measured and considerate man, is not the hyperbolic type. Why him, though? “Because he’s going to be the best player in the world.” 

In the same month eight years later, a group of cricketers are chewing the fat on the boundary of the Three Ws Oval in Barbados. Out in the middle is the third match of the now-defunct North-South series featuring players on the cusp of international selection. So naturally, in this cluster, a frank discussion begins. Who among them reckons they’ve got a shot to make the step up? 

The conversation bounces around awkwardly for a few minutes before it is broken by the crack of a boundary off Ollie Pope’s bat. As they go to applaud the shot, one of them has a moment of realisation: “That next Test player you were asking about? That’s him out here.” 

Stokes was just 18 at the time and about to play his maiden first-class match in Abu Dhabi against the MCC. Pope, 20, and a veteran of six appearances in the format. But none of that really matters. Sometimes, even in a game fuelled by uncertainty, when you know, you know. 

If you didn’t, well now is as good a time as any to get up to speed. A day when Ben Stokes rattled off his ninth Test hundred and became only the second Englishman, after Ian Botham, to have scored more than 4,000 runs alongside 100 wickets, and Ollie Pope recorded his first century of many. 

Recommencing their respective innings after 45-minute delay due to rain – Stokes on 38, Pope on 39 – their task was to propel England to a sizeable score. By the time they were both done – Stokes for 120 via a shot blazed to backward point to give Dane Paterson a maiden Test wicket; Pope 135 not out, given a standing ovation as he walked off – South Africa had been taken for 499 in the best part of two days. Their stand of 203 containing the guts and glory of it all.

Together they were supreme. A combination so much more than left-and-right. Brutish and impish. New-boy swagger and gruff show-stopper. One watchful, the other laying waste, particularly in a first session that saw 111 scored in 27 overs and 70 of them coming from Stokes. 

By then, he’d ticked over to three figures. The shot that brought it up off his 174th delivery was a single into cover. The celebration that followed, a casual punch of the air and absent-fingered salute to his father. Neither actions told of the mess he made of the Proteas attack. 

He hit Keshav Maharaj over midwicket for six, then out of the ground for another. They were his only two shots that cleared the fence, though the 12 fours – 10 in those first 100 runs – were just as demoralising. Kagiso Rabada went short and got pulled, went full and got driven and, after picking up a fourth demerit point last night for giving Joe Root a send-off, won’t be doing anything at all in the fourth Test in Johannesburg. 

The silver lining to the quick's automatic ban is that he won’t see Stokes again after this match. The all-rounder’s batting has never been better, averaging 50.47 since the start of 2019 and exhibiting the sort of domination of his craft that England have not had since Kevin Pietersen.

And heck, in Pope they have a middle order dasher to rival Ian Bell. The thing is, though – and as ridiculous as it sounds – he might be better.

He’s already operating in the bracket of those types at this juncture: the youngest centurion since Alastair Cook’s first in 2006, an early Test average of 51.86 and a first-class one of 61.14 across 53 innings. 

As with those of that ilk, they get a bit of luck their way. And while the LBW decision given to Pope as he stepped across his stumps to Nortje was shown to be sliding down on review, the call for DRS was made with just two seconds to go. He went back to work on 74 – one below his previous best – and made the reprieve count. 

Pope is a dasher at heart: one of the best examples of a multi-sport batsman in that his shots are the result of refined reactions to moments rather than lines rehearsed. He cuts behind point with the flourish topspin forehand and he clips through midwicket with the drop of the shoulder that wrong-foots defenders – the shot that took him to 100, from 190 deliveries, with his 14th four. And he ramps over the keeper like he is taking the piss. 

But pulling that all together is a composure he transfers into the gritty parts. The leaves that do not make highlight reels, the defensive fends that look ungainly when screen-shotted. 

The newest addition to his game has been an of that fifth stump line which was honed during the three months of last summer spent nursing a badly dislocated shoulder back to health. That is why they rave about him. Whether in the middle or on the sidelines, no time is wasted. 

As laudable as the watchfulness is, the real fun comes when he cuts loose. This side was coaxed out of him by the presence of fellow young thing Sam Curran, who came and went for 44. Two lads from Surrey with credit in the bank and a license to run wild without a care for the locals. For an afternoon at least, St George’s Park felt like a Wandsworth beer garden. 

Thoughts soon turned to a declaration and that’s when the more audacious shots emerged. Anrich Nortje and Rabada were both flicked over the keeper’s head with scoops and reverse scoops with disdain the real Pope has for handsy worshippers. 

The Proteas’s misery was compounded by perhaps the most outlandish cameo of the lot. Mark Wood, whose aptitude with the bat is rooted in stability, cleared his front leg five times against Maharaj and nailed him into the stands in a 23-ball 42 as part of a 73-run stand. The spinner, diligent but not pretty across his 58-over shift, did at least get the reward of Wood’s wicket – skying to Nortje at deep midwicket – to finish with five for 180. 

Upon declaring the innings on 499 for nine, which could have been 468 for nine if Rabada had not over-stepped to Wood, there was a sense the fun was due to stop. When you bat for 152 overs there is always a sinking feeling you’ll have to do about that much in return when the pitch offered as little as it did for bowlers. 

South Africa advanced pretty sharpishly to 50 from 11.3 overs, Dean Elgar square driving his way to 32. But after a couple of gifts to Dom Bess – Pieter Malan chipping back to the bowler; Zubayr Hamza as meek in turning one into the hands of Pope at short leg – England settle tonight with two of the 20 wickets they need to take an unassailable lead 2-1 lead. 

There is still a lot of work to be done. This pitch is still, for all intents and purposes, flat and even with Mark Wood’s pace, there will be a degree of watching and waiting for Root’s men on day three. 

Right now, though, they can rest easy knowing they have established a position from which they cannot lose. They will also take great pride in their two centurions and what they represent. Stokes and the glory of the present – Pope and the glory that lies ahead. 

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