Among his wickets this time was Keaton Jennings, who had made his second century of the match as relegation-threatened Lancashire set Durham an improbable 475 to win. As they reached stumps 134 for three, Stokes still has work to do, a task made much harder by the presence of Nathan Lyon in Lancashire’s ranks.

Even so, Durham coach Ryan Campbell was amazed by Stokes’ efforts. “I wanted to go out and tackle Ben [Stokes],” the Australian said. “He’s playing his first game back and he just keeps bowling. But that’s the beauty of Ben Stokes and I truly hope that when the time comes for Ben to walk away from this game, I hope England cricket understand what you’ve got, because that bloke is just a beast.

“He never gives up, he just wants to bowl and bowl and bowl and he’s such a skilful bowler. When he doesn’t bowl, it’s a whole different England team and I have no doubt you have a lot to look forward to. At Durham, we just treasure the time we have with him.”

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Despite Crawley’s epic innings, his Kent side also still have much to do. They were asked to follow on 366 behind on first innings against Somerset, and reached stumps on day three 409 for five. Crawley, who had made just 67 runs in seven innings this season, hit 31 fours and four sixes in his innings, which saw him share 194 with Ben Compton and 184 with Daniel Bell-Drummond, before falling among a flurry of wickets late in the day. Crawley fell to the new ball after Jack Leach picked up two wickets.

At the Oval, Champions Surrey notched their fourth win in succession, taking 19 points from their victory over Worcestershire. While Worcestershire’s resisted bravely – taking them from 102 for eight to 231 all out – they were still thumped by 281 runs, as Surrey extended their lead atop the table. Dan Worrall, the outstanding Australian seamer who qualifies for England next spring, took remarkable match figures of 10 for 57.

‌At Chelmsford and Trent Bridge, there are final-day thrillers in store. Essex need 106 more for victory, with six wickets in hand, having clawed their way back into the match by bowling Warwickshire out for 94, limiting their target to 320. And Hampshire are 84 for five chasing 169 against Nottinghamshire, for whom Dillon Pennington again impressed. Hampshire’s task may be made more difficult by the fact that young batsman Tom Prest has not taken the field since the opening day due to a shoulder issue.

In his first game of the season, Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne’s hundred helped Glamorgan fight back against Middlesex. Labuschagne had Colin Ingram both made centuries to give Glamorgan a lead of more than 100 and a chance of saving the game on the final day.