Ben Stokes builds up head of steam for Durham during England exile | Sport

At 10am at Chester-le-Street, Ben Stokes was looking lean and mean, shorn and sharp. No one in the Durham team ran faster or stretched lower during the warmup. No one stalked the outfield with quite such an aura.

Exiled from the Oval – where England were busy conceding a 352 run lead to New Zealand – after the curfew-breaking celebrations at the Rex Rooms, England’s resting/sacked/soon-to-be reinstated captain was turning out for Durham for the third time this season, and the first time at the Riverside. The 600 local children who rolled up for arts and crafts sessions had lucked out with a blue riband ticket, though they seemed more than happy with an autograph from Durham’s Graham Clark who patiently signed ribbons of outstretched pieces of paper down on the boundary.

Durham won the toss and chose to field, but on a day when wickets fell like confetti around the country, they were stubbornly sticky at Chester-le-Street. After Ben Raine and Matthew Potts, bowlers made more conventionally of flesh, rather than iron, were unable to break through in their first spells, the ball was handed to Stokes at the Finchale End.

By sheer force of will, Northants were bound to lose a wicket. By sheer force of will Stokes created a wicket off his fourth ball, only for Ben McKinney to drop Ricardo Vasconcelos at leg slip. In and out, midnight sweats. Vasconcelos sent the next ball singing through the covers, and would be unbeaten on 181 at stumps.

Stokes built up a head of steam. A bouncer hit Luke Procter on the helmet and a succession of short balls followed. Then some more. He wasn’t dialling this one in while he waited for the blazers to give him a call. Another over followed, and another, after six you wondered if anyone would be able to take the ball off him, especially after he had an lbw appeal turned down against Procter, please, he pleaded, squatting down on his heels – but no cigar.

During the afternoon rain break, Durham members Christopher Hackworth, Phillip Wright and Simon and Kim Ramsey sheltered under the concourse.

“The media has been over the top, you’d think he’d murdered someone,” said Hackworth. “Build the lad up, then knock him down, there’s got to be a balance. I’ve seen the same with Paul Gascoigne over the years.

“Durham members could tell you all the good things that Ben Stokes has done during his time with us. Last week when he was practising up here, I saw him talk to a dad and his lad for 15 minutes when he’d just finished practising and was looking sweaty. And I’ve never once seen him turn an autograph down.”

And sure enough he didn’t, when, at the end of the day, after 18 overs, and a wicket in his penultimate one (McKinney the catcher), two children presented him with some paper, and a fan asked for a selfie.

After play, Ryan Campbell, Durham’s coach, seemed pretty sure that this game was the last they’d see of Stokes for a while, he’d soon be back with England. “All I have seen is the same old Ben Stokes who loves being the Durham dressing room, who loves being around a cricket ground and who hasn’t missed a beat.

“The first thing he did when he was coming back was text the player group and say don’t be douchebags.”

Gus Atkinson, the other England player to break the curfew and be left out of the Oval Test team, played for Surrey at Sophia Gardens, bowling a miserly opening spell and grabbing two Glamorgan wickets.