Mere numbers

I wonder if the following sequence of numbers will appear in a future sports’ quiz with the corresponding question being, what do these mean: 601000216000610120621466210000104410060004? Perhaps a clue will then be given, as follows: 74 off 42? 1 off 17? Any ideas? One last clue: 67 for 10 and then 362 for 9…

These numbers, as you may now have guessed, even if you are not a sport lover let alone a cricket fanatic, relate to England’s amazing / historic / unbelievable / superhuman (you choose the adjective) Ashes’ Test match victory over Australia at Headingley this past weekend.  (The figures above, in order, relate to: firstly Ben Stokes’ ball by ball display after the ninth and penultimate English wicket had fallen; secondly, he scored 74 runs off the final 42 balls (having managed only 2 runs off 50 balls the previous day); thirdly, Stokes’ final partner at the crease, Jack Leach, scored only 1 run off 17 balls he faced; and, finally, England’s woeful 67 all out in their first innings and then their 362 for the loss of all but the final wicket in their second innings which saw them pull off probably the greatest sporting ‘Houdini’ trick in history.)

These heroics are all the more remarkable given how badly England had played in their first innings – their worst score in Test cricket for nearly 70 years. Understandably, they were being written off as ‘humiliated’, ‘inept’, ‘woeful’ (etc.) – until, that is, the extraordinary display by Ben Stokes and Jack Leach under a cloudless sky on the afternoon of Sunday, 25th August 2019.

Mere words

Clearly, I don’t need to add to the many wonderful summaries in the Press of this fine sporting achievement. I do, however, want to pick up on a few, wider, observations. Ben Stokes himself was lost for words when first interviewed after the match. His England team were elated but also appeared shell-shocked. I need not comment on how the Australians were feeling. The sports writers in the Press also seemed speechless but it didn’t take long for their craft to kick in. Kevin Garside in the iNewspaper, writes: This was not just England’s moment, or cricket’s. This was one for the whole world of sport to savour, demonstrating the capacity of an ostensibly trivial pastime to say something profound about humankind…Stokes gave expression to genius and might rightly be considered as accomplished in his field as Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent van Gogh were in theirs. Garside, and others of his ilk, then invoke the language of faith to try and sum up Ben Stokes’ exploits: not a mere mortal, a worker of miracles, someone who has achieved the impossible – the person who resurrected English cricket in its darkest hour. Mere words, indeed, are inadequate, even meaningless – as are the statistics.

My simplistic ‘take’ on all this is: Stokes couldn’t have achieved what he did without the rest of the team and especially Jack Leach (and to Stokes’ credit, he did so acknowledge this); the Test-match crowd at Headingley also played an incalculably important part in exhorting Stokes et al; this achievement was also made possible by Stokes’ hard work (apparently without match in the current England team) – as well as his skill, self-belief and never-say-die attitude; if was also made possible by Australia, the opponents, faltering and eventually falling short themselves.

The truly unique moment in history

And so, what do we ‘mere mortals’ learn: it’s good to utilise inherent strengths and skills – and often this is only possible with dogged hard work. It’s vital, also, to share a responsibility with a team, a family, colleagues, a church – and to give credit where it’s due. We need to embrace the difficult task – even welcome it – as a means of strengthening ourselves and learning humility when we have to pick ourselves up yet again. Ultimately, as a Christian, I should be aware of the cheers and encouragement of the ‘cloud of witnesses’, seek to throw off anything impeding me and push on to reach the goal of completeness in Christ Jesus (cf Hebrews 12:1-3). That is the true miracle based on the most amazing event in history – ever: the Resurrection. No words, no numbers, can sum up that singular, unique, ultimate event.