'STOKES ONE OF GREATS... IF NOT THE GREATEST'

BUTTLER PRAISE AS ALL-ROUNDER INSPIRES T20 GLORY

- Malik Ouzia Cricket Correspondent

BEN STOKES is “in the conversation” to be England’s greatest cricketer of all-time after inspiring another World Cup triumph.

That is the view of captain Jos Buttler, whose side yesterday made history by adding the T20 World Cup to the 50-over crown won in 2019, becoming the first men’s team to hold both titles at the same time.

In the 2019 final at Lord’s, Stokes had been England’s hero, named player of the match after keeping the game alive with an unbeaten 84 and then batting alongside Buttler in the dramatic Super Over.

In Melbourne yesterday, on a tricky surface he did it again, a determined, unbeaten half-century — Stokes’s first in T20i cricket — seeing England home by five wickets after some fine bowling had restricted Pakistan to 137 for eight.