England bowler Ben Stokes has been more than just unlucky with no-balls

Young bowler needs time to perfect his action and stop overstepping the mark, but umpires could do more to help nip transgressions in the bud before the wickets fall

• Reports of the death of West Indies cricket have been greatly exaggerated

One can never hypothesise, in a Sliding Doors kind of way, what might have happened if a bowler had not been deprived of a wicket by sending down a no-ball, but in the most simplistic analysis, the two such that Ben Stokes has bowled in his brief career have been costly. Around 17 months ago in Adelaide, when he was making his debut and before he had a Test wicket, Stokes induced an edge from Brad Haddin, who had 51 at the time, and after the no-ball was revealed by the obligatory check from the third umpire, the batsman went on to make 118. Then last Tuesday, in Antigua, when he had made 21, Jermaine Blackwood edged Stokes to Alastair Cook at slip, the bowler was shown to have overstepped once more and the batsman went on to make an unbeaten 112. So twice then in five matches he, and England, have been frustrated by his straining an extra couple of inches that in reality make so little difference (would he have found the edge if a fraction further back? goes the argument) as to be discounted.

This second occasion apparently stirred up the Twittersphere, and Stokes, unwisely, seemed to react by implying that overstepping the crease was the inevitable collateral damage of trying hard and straining for pace. What it is, actually, is unprofessional in the same way that a batsman running short might be, and it struck that at the other end of the spectrum, Jimmy Anderson, who possesses perhaps as rhythmically athletic a run as any in his time, always seems to land perfectly, the crease running beneath the arch of his foot. In fact a check revealed that the last time Anderson was called was, in a nice piece of synchronicity, in Stokes’ first game, and further investigation shows that since then, and including that match, England bowlers have been called 27 times in 12 matches, of which Stokes, in those five games, has contributed 15, two of them detrimental. So in those terms he has a relative problem.

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