England Test captain Ben Stokes dropped a bombshell on Monday (July 18) when he announced his retirement from ODIs, citing his body could not handle the load of all three formats and felt he could not give his 100% in the 50-over format anymore for England.
Stokes also confirmed he would play for the last time in the longer white-ball format on Tuesday, in the 1st ODI at South Africa at his home venue, Chester-le-Street in Durham. The all-rounder recently played all three ODIs against India and that's when he made his decision.
Stokes had famously scored 84* in the 2019 Cricket World Cup final against New Zealand at Lord's, taking the game into a Super Over, with England eventually prevailing on boundary count to win the title for the first time, ending a 44-year wait.
On Tuesday, after South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first on a hot day, Stokes was given the honour by his teammates to lead the side onto the field as the home crowd applauded. The 31-year-old was visibly emotional and shed a tear or two as well after the love being showered on him.
Stokes failed to add to his 74 ODI wickets as he went wicketless in five overs, conceding 44 runs, while clearly having an injury issue with his knee. England will need 334 runs to go 1-0 up in the three-match series after a superb ton by Rassie van der Dussen (134) and half-centuries by Aiden Markram (77) and Janneman Malan (57).
