Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes hundreds allow England to declare on 264-run lead

For all that he has overseen a radical transformation in his team's success and self-belief, this summer has been a curious one for Ben Stokes, the Test-match batter.

There had been a series of starts - particularly against New Zealand - but a succession of short-lived slogs too, as if his desire to communicate a message of overt positivity to his team had run in direct opposition to the oddly accumulative methods that have tended to produce his best Test innings.

But on the second day at Emirates Old Trafford, Stokes finally had the stage upon which to craft a finished article. His magnificent innings of 103 from 163 balls - his 12th Test century, and his first since the tour of the West Indies in March - came in the midst of a game-seizing stand of 173 for the sixth wicket with Ben Foakes, who went on to top-score with an unbeaten 113, his second England hundred after a memorable debut against Sri Lanka in 2018.

Between them, Stokes and Foakes turned a position of English dominance into one of utter serenity - one in which the sight of Stokes himself giving his innings away with a mad mow, moments after reaching his hundred, resulted not in recriminations at a position of dominance squandered, but in a gleefully freewheeling response from the tail.

As Foakes ticked along to his own beat, resolutely providing the adult supervision to England's innings before seizing his moment of glory with a cut for four through backward point, the afternoon gave way to a series of cameos from Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and perhaps most preposterously, Jack Leach, whose switch-hit four through extra cover off Keshav Maharaj reduced a visibly relaxed home balcony to hysterics.

By this stage, James Anderson had abandoned his batting pads, and sure enough Stokes waved them in at the fall of Leach's wicket, to expose South Africa's browbeaten fielders to nine overs of new-ball pressure. Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee ground their way to the close with few alarms, but with a permanent coterie of close catchers in attendance - a reminder that England are minded to make every error count, with no fewer than three full days yawning in front of their opponents.

It had briefly been a different game in the far-distant morning session, in which England resumed on on 111 for 3 in reply to South Africa's sub-par 151 - a healthy position, but far from a dominant one, least of all with a pumped-up Anrich Nortje breathing fire once more from the Brian Statham End.

With reverse-swing and pace in abundance, Nortje blasted out both of England's overnight batters, Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley, before the remnants of their 40-run overnight deficit had been written off, and at 147 for 5 in the 36th over, there was a frisson of jeopardy in the air as Stokes and Foakes came together. Suddenly, England's twin collapses to 161 and 149 at Lord's felt very recent indeed.

But if Dean Elgar, South Africa's captain, was not already ruing his match choices, after foregoing those prime seam-bowling conditions on the first morning, he surely was by the mid-point of a flaccid afternoon's performance.

For South Africa's senior pair could not go on forever, and having opted to include the second spinner in Simon Harmer in place of the left-arm pace of Marco Jansen, Elgar's options were severely limited, given that Harmer and Maharaj would have been banking on a South Africa first innings extending beyond a mere 53.2 overs, and a more used surface on which to ply their trade.

Harmer's solitary over on the first evening hadn't given much away about his impending impact, although his reputation precedes him following his exploits for Essex. However, his first delivery of the day - to Foakes - was a juicy full toss, stroked through the covers for four, and when Stokes greeted him in the same over with an easy heave over midwicket for his first six, the die was cast for an uncomfortable day's work, in which Harmer's solitary wicket would be that of Broad in his 23rd and final over of the innings.

Harmer was, however, bowling for the one moment in which England might have feared, not only for their match prospects, but for those in next week's third Test too. While turning for a second run after a stab to square leg, Stokes' troublesome left knee buckled and he was left needing several minutes of treatment during the drinks break. True to his recent insistence that it is a manageable issue, however, he soon shook off the pain, and before long he was galloping down the track to pump Lungi Ngidi through long-off with that habitual straight-lined poise.

By lunch, England were 61 runs to the good, handy but hardly decisive. The stage was surely set for Nortje's return to the attack, and another pace assault in a bid to protect South Africa's hard-earned series lead. However, Elgar had other ideas, resuming with Maharaj and Harmer in partnership - a lo-fi option that allowed both batters to nudge both themselves and the lead into a position of true authority.

Mind you, the ploy nearly unseated Stokes, as he twice came agonisingly close to giving his innings away, a missed reverse sweep off Maharaj and a similarly ambitious mow at Harmer skimming past his leg and the off stump, respectively.

But by degrees he settled and grew into his role, finding the middle of his bat with ever-growing assurance, before snapping into a launch into the pavilion for six off Harmer to bring up his third fifty of the summer.

Thereafter, he was unshackled - not in the wild sense of his very highest-octane innings, but with the calm assurance of a dominant match situation, a demoralised opposition, and a perfect summer's afternoon for batting.

Nortje returned to the attack moments after Stokes had reached his fifty, but with a now 68-over-old ball, he was some way short of the sharpest pace he had previously been producing, and was soon angling for a ball-change - a surefire sign that the threat had dissipated.

In his eagerness to reach his hundred before tea, Stokes did offer two half-chances - a slapped drive on 96 that skimmed through the hands of short cover, and a convincing appeal for an inside-edge to the keeper, one that the third umpire reckoned was actually pad onto pad. Instead, he needed just three balls after the break to pick off his milestone single, via a ricochet off Ngidi's shin, but four balls after that he was gone; a premeditated assault on Rabada resulting only in an off-balance hack to Elgar at mid-off.

Up until the 40s, Stokes and Foakes had ticked along at a very similar tempo, but whereas Stokes saw the chance to put his foot down after reaching his half-century, Foakes recognised his role - not unlike Crawley's to Bairstow on day one - had simply been to stay there. And for the reminder of his innings, Foakes' bread-and-butter stroke was an uncomplicated clip to mid-on - as often as not off Harmer, whose offbreaks seemed to turn invitingly into his arc every ball.

Rabada gave Foakes some hairy moments with the new ball, as did Maharaj who challenged his leading edge with his left-arm line turning away from the bat, but he slipped back into his groove as the milestone approached - no doubt channelling the frustrations that have held his career back of late, among them a dressing-room accident that ruled him out last summer, and a bout of Covid that interrupted his tenure this summer. And fittingly it was Nortje, a man who had harried him twice at Lord's last week, who served up his hundred boundary-ball - a delicate dab down through deep third.

By the time of the declaration, Foakes was able to soak up the plaudits as he led the teams off, secure in the knowledge that he'd more than done the needful. South Africa have been defused in this match so far. And for all the buzz about England's proactivity, the anchor of this innings had been a man playing as if he had all the time in the world.