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Everton journalist Chris Smith has revealed that Director of Football Kevin Thelwell is now ‘at the table’ to potentially sign Armando Broja.

The Lowdown: McNeil signs

The Goodison Park outfit confirmed the signing of winger Dwight McNeil from Burnley on a five-year deal for an undisclosed fee on Thursday afternoon.

He joins former Clarets teammate James Tarkowski and ex-Wolves full-back Ruben Vinagre on Merseyside, and it means that they can now focus on securing their targets in other areas of the pitch.

The Latest: Broja update

Taking to Twitter, Smith has revealed that Thelwell is now ‘at the table’ to sign Broja, but Chelsea are asking for a transfer fee as high as ‘£50m’ to sell the striker:

“If #Everton are to sign Armando Broja, it’s going to go down to the wire I think.

“They’re still very much at the table, but right now Chelsea are asking for huge sums – as high as £50m I’m told.

“They’ll only come down on that if they can sign another striker themselves.”

The Verdict: Patience needed

The Toffees need to be patient in terms of their pursuit of Broja this window, and not jump the gun to pay a heavily inflated price for the Albania international.

Having let Romelu Lukaku return to Inter Milan on loan, Chelsea could well be looking at bringing in a striker, which should theoretically then bring Broja’s price down.

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The Blues can afford to start the season with Dominic Calvert-Lewin up top, and McNeil now gives them another attacking option to help cover the loss of Richarlison to Tottenham Hotspur.

They should still go all in for Broja, but may be wise to wait until later on in the window in order to secure a sensible deal.

A huge update has emerged regarding Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of Djed Spence in the summer transfer window… 

What’s the talk?

The Athletic’s David Ornstein has revealed that Spurs are now closing in on a deal for the England under-21 international after discussions with Middlesbrough.

He tweeted: “Tottenham on the verge of total agreement with Middlesbrough to sign Djed Spence. Talks between Daniel Levy, Steve Gibson, player rep Scott Smith have produced a breakthrough. If all goes to plan medical expected in next 48hrs.”

Fabrizio Romano later added to the story, tweeting: “Tottenham are set to complete Djed Spence deal, confirmed and here we go! He’s gonna sign a five year deal, medical tests ready – final details discussed now & contracts being prepared. #THFC Fee will be £12.5m guaranteed plus add ons, total package will be just under £20m.”

Antonio Conte will be delighted

The Spurs head coach will be delighted by this latest development, as Spence would be an exciting addition to his squad for the 2022/23 campaign.

At the age of 21, the full-back is a player who can make an impact in the short run and the long-term for Tottenham. He played 42 games in the Championship on loan at Forest, producing two goals and four assists in that time as he showcased his attacking quality.

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His potential was illustrated by ITV pundit Ian Wright, who said: “If we are talking about right-backs performing at an unbelievable level, we’re talking about Reece James and Trent, but I have not seen a combative, technical, swashbuckling performance like that for a very long time.

“I said to him, in all seriousness, ‘That level we saw there? You should be in the Premier League.’ Simple as that.”

These comments suggest that Spence has the ability to put in an elite wing-back performance, although it is up to him to develop and prove that he can do it week in, week out to be on the same level as the likes of James and Alexander-Arnold.

Spence has the scope to become a full-back capable of making a big impact at the top end of the pitch, scoring and creating goals for the team.

He has plenty of years left ahead of him to hone his skills and build his consistency over time as he gains experience playing in the Premier League. The gem is a player who can benefit from Conte’s coaching and learn from the likes of Ivan Perisic, who is a vastly experienced winger/wing-back in Europe.

AND in other news, Fabrizio Romano delivers frustrating Spurs update that’ll leave Conte & Levy fuming…

A claim has emerged on Tottenham Hotspur and their pursuit of a new centre-back in the summer transfer window… 

What’s the talk?

Sky Sports journalist Michael Bridge is confident that Spurs will get a deal over the line to bolster that position before the end of August.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “Firstly, I think Ben Davies had a great season and was Wales’ best player in their recent win against Ukraine, and he immediately strengthens Tottenham’s bench next season if Spurs do get that left centre-back.

“I do think they will get that left centre-back, I don’t think there’s any worry about that, it’s which one they will get.”

Supporters will be delighted

The Spurs supporters will be delighted with this claim from Bridge for multiple reasons.

Firstly, it shows that there is a desire from Fabio Paratici, Daniel Levy and Antonio Conte to continue to improve the squad heading into the next Premier League campaign.

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They have already brought in three fresh recruits in the form of Yves Bissouma, Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster and this latest report confirms that they are not done there. The club want to add more and the fans will be buzzing with the ambition being shown by those behind the scenes.

After securing Champions League football for next season, Tottenham could be excused for being happy with keeping the likes of Dejan Kulusevsi, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane alongside adding one or two. Instead, they are clearly trying to bolster their starting XI to compete on all fronts next term and that should excite the fanbase.

Supporters will also be delighted with the suggestion that Davies will be the player to be replaced in the team for the 2022/23 campaign.

The Wales international averaged a lower SofaScore rating than Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez and Christian Romero in the Premier League last season. He also ranks in the 22nd percentile or lower for interceptions, blocks, and clearances per 90 across Europe’s top five leagues and European competition in the last 365 days.

This suggests that he is a player the club can, realistically, improve upon because he was not one of the best players in his position at the club last term and is one of the least impressive centre-backs – in terms of defensive actions – in Europe.

Therefore, fans will be pleased to know that the club plan to replace him this summer with a new signing to take his place.

AND in other news: Paratici can land big Davies upgrade in Spurs deal to sign “immense” £30m “revelation”

Recent reports have claimed that West Ham could look to cash in on Tomas Soucek this summer but it would be a disastrous move by David Moyes and GSB to get rid of the Czech Republic international.

Football Insider claimed earlier this week that Tottenham Hotspur could look to sign the midfielder after a breakdown in the relationship between Soucek and Moyes.

Journalist Pete O’Rourke has since offered his thoughts on the situation, telling GIVEMESPORT:

“I think West Ham would really regret losing someone like Tomas Soucek. He’s been a great player for West Ham under David Moyes.

“He’s a key player in that midfield alongside Declan Rice. He’s effective in both boxes, he can score goals from set-pieces as well.”

Although Soucek struggled to replicate his displays from the 2020/21 season in the last campaign, he still managed to contribute five goals and one assist in 35 Premier League appearances for the Hammers, averaging a solid 6.98 rating from WhoScored for his performances across the season.

The 27-year-old has formed an excellent partnership with Declan Rice in midfield since joining from Slavia Prague in a £15m deal in 2020, following a successful loan spell in the second half of that season.

The England international was full of praise for his teammate in 2020, saying:

“He’s brilliant to play with. He’s a player that we definitely needed with some legs to make the box and obviously get back as well.

“He’s added something to the team which is brilliant. He gives us an out all the time and when he pops up in the box we’ve not really had that over the years. It’s fantastic to play with him and of course, I don’t have to do all the running with Tomas.”

Therefore, in a summer where Rice’s West Ham future lies in the balance, it would surely be unwise for the Hammers to cash in on his midfield partner given the mutual respect between the two.

If Soucek can rediscover his form from the 2020/21 season when he notched 10 goals and featured in every single Premier League game, then Moyes will definitely be glad to have kept the midfielder at the London Stadium.

And, in other news… West Ham could solve striker woes with £8.4m swoop…

West Bromwich Albion didn’t give their fans much to shout about during the recent Championship campaign in regards to the team’s attacking power.

With just 52 league goals scored throughout the season, the Baggies ended their rather underwhelming campaign with the lowest percentage for shots on target (29.1%) in the division and the joint lowest rate for goals per shot (0.07).

However, one figure that the Midlands club could rely on more often than not to get them firing is Karlan Grant.

In 44 league appearances, the attacker found the net 18 times and delivered six assists in the process, leaving him with more goal contributions than any of his West Brom teammates.

Even though the Baggies only finished tenth in the league, it’s safe to say that their season would have been even more miserable had they not had the 24-year-old and his attacking talent in their side.

With the next summer transfer window set to open for business in the coming days, one figure that Steve Bruce could bring in to add an extra attacking dynamic to his side to potentially create a deadly duo alongside Grant is Tom Lawrence.

Having been linked with a move to the Hawthorns last month, the Welshman certainly has what it takes to be a great attacking asset for the Baggies.

In 264 Championship appearances, the 28-year-old has delivered 90 goal contributions in total with 50 scored and 40 assisted.

His latest and potentially last season with Derby County saw the attacker find the net 11 times and deliver five assists in 38 appearances, making him, just like Grant at West Brom, their top goalscorer and assist provider.

Labelled as a “smashing talent” in the past by Steve Evans, Lawrence racked up an average of 2.7 shots per game this season, which is higher than the 2.5 average that Grant ended the campaign with.

This shows just how much of a danger he can be for opposition goalkeepers, which is something that West Brom could have done with a bit more of to get them in with a shout of getting promoted.

In a recent poll ran by Football FanCast, 91% of voters said that they would want to see the Derby star at the Hawthorns for next season, which suggests that it would be a very popular move with the fans should the club be successful in their attempt to sign him.

If West Brom can secure a deal for Lawrence on a free transfer once his contract runs out at the end of the month and get him in the team alongside Grant, this could be a scary duo that puts the team back in the Premier League.

In other news: Bruce can land dream transfer as West Brom eye move for “outstanding” £61k-p/w machine

Wolves host already-relegated Norwich City in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, with the Canaries set to be without at least five first-team players going into their trip to the Black Country.

What’s the latest?

As per Norfolk Live, Andrew Omobamidele (back), Adam Idah (knee), Ozan Kabak (thigh), Kenny McLean and Josh Sargent (ankle) have all been ruled out for the rest of the seaosn.

However, the East Anglia outfit could also be without Mathias Normann and Christoph Zimmermann, who have both missed recent games, with the former set to receive results from a scan.

“It is as it was for Leicester City on Wednesday,” said Norwich manager Dean Smith ahead of the match, with his side losing 3-0 to Leicester last time out.

Lage and Wolves will be delighted

With just one point from Wolves’ last five matches, Sunday could prove to be Bruno Lage’s side’s best chance of ending their winless run.

The Old Gold have been woeful of late, with Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing at home to Manchester City, not long after a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Brighton at the end of April, emphasising how subpar they have been recently.

For a team which prides itself in its defending given how few goals they score, to concede ten goals in their last three matches is extremely worrying for Lage’s side.

However, against a team already relegated from the Premier League and without a handful of key players, Sunday’s match will be a golden opportunity to get back on track ahead of the final day of the season next weekend.

Although highly unlikely, Wolves do still have an outside chance of sneaking into a European position. West Ham in seventh have a five-point advantage over the Old Gold in eighth and would have to lose their remaining two league fixtures, with Wolves winning both of theirs, for Lage’s side to qualify for the Europa Conference League.

Therefore, it is imperative that the Molineux outfit end the season on a high in order to give themselves an outside chance of sneaking into a European place, and that starts with victory over Norwich.

With the Canaries suffering from a number of injuries, Lage will certainly be confident of his team’s chances of getting a first win since early April.

AND in other news: Wolves heading for big summer disaster over “breath of fresh air”, Lage surely gutted

It was always going to take at least two players to even come close to replicating what one of the great allrounders offered and at Trent Bridge that pair may have been found

Firdose Moonda at Trent Bridge17-Jul-2017″Absolutely not.”Vernon Philander had to deny the comparison Faf du Plessis made between him and South Africa’s best. “He is becoming the new Jacques Kallis the way he is batting. We joke about it because his technique is becoming the same as Kallis’ as well,” du Plessis said.”Absolutely not.”Of course not. Kallis was South Africa’s highest Test run-scorer and fifth highest wicket-taker. For more than a decade he was the ultimate luxury. Kallis gave South Africa a 12th man in an 11-man team and attempting to replace him had proved futile.Because top-order seam-bowling allrounders are a lesser-spotted species, South Africa have had to settle for compromises in their search for team balance. Most commonly, they fielded a three-pronged pace attack with a spinner and seven specialist batsmen but occasionally they went for an all-pace line-up and sacrificed the spinner entirely. They have been reluctant to cull a batsman, except on two occasions – on a green-top in Centurion March 2014 and on a big tuner in Mohali in November 2015 – and both times it backfired badly. Now they have an exception.Nottingham 2017 is where South Africa might have found the beginnings of a solution to the Kallis-sized problem that crops up every now and then. They still needed to find two players, but two allrounders, to do the job someone like Kallis would have done and it worked. Philander and Chris Morris scored 90 between them in the first innings and 55 in the second – more than a fifth South Africa’s total runs – and took 10 wickets. Together, they played a key role in securing a crucial win.Philander’s performance with the ball should hardly come as a surprise. Since making his Test debut at the end of 2011, he has been consistently threatening with the new ball, even more so in conditions which offer a little something. In Hamilton during 2012, in Hobart last November and now here at Trent Bridge, Philander has out-bowled home bowlers and outfoxed home batsmen in their own conditions.His strength is in his discipline. Philander lands the ball in the same area outside off stump almost all the time. It’s not glamourous, it’s not fast, it’s not flashy and it’s definitely not new-age. Philander doesn’t steam in or snarl, his veins don’t pop, his eyes don’t dance, he doesn’t bounce anyone and maybe he doesn’t like someone who should be tearing through sides. But he asks the same question over and over and over again and batsmen, especially batsmen who aren’t entirely sure of themselves, don’t have answers.In this Test, Philander was particularly impressive in his approach to left handers. He burst through Keaton Jennings’ bat-pad gap with a ball that came back in from off stump and then insisted on a review when he had Gary Ballance stuck in the crease and struck on the pad by a ball that straightened. Philander’s instincts were correct and the review well-used.Philander believed England’s top three may continue to find it difficult to play him. “With the moving ball here it’s difficult because you can’t just leave me, with the odd one nipping back. I’m looking to attack off stump consistently and that makes life difficult for those left-handers.”But that is not his only job. Philander was also asked to bat a place higher than usual – No. 7 instead of No. 8 – and to contribute runs as a genuine allrounder would. It’s a task he takes seriously. With two fifties in two successive matches, Philander has shown temperament top-order players would envy. His technique is solid, if not Kallis-esque, and he puts a high price on his wicket. For du Plessis that’s what made Philander’s Trent Bridge performance so special.”In this game he had a new challenge on his shoulders. We left a batsman out to play two allrounders and with that comes extra responsibility on his shoulders,” du Plessis said. “We gave him the promotion to seven because I back his technique and his batting and he responded beautifully by getting crucial runs for us. The ball will always be the ball for him, he is a machine but now he is doing it with the bat as well.”Vernon Philander’s set-up of Keaton Jennings in the second innings was world class•Getty ImagesAnd it’s not entirely wrong to compare him with Kallis, at least not in England. In this country, Philander averages 40.28 with the bat, with three vital fifties to his name, and 21.60 with the ball. Kallis, who played more 10 more Tests in England than Philander’s five to date, averaged 35.33 with the bat and 29.30 with the ball. Not much in it, is there?Philander’s challenge will be keeping up with Kallis’ numbers and many will expect him not to. He is entirely used to being under-rated. “You will always be judged and have people making comments but that’s something we have to put out of our minds,” he said.For a lot of his naysayers fitness is an issue and his stumbling in the field at Trent Bridge didn’t help, but whatever physical condition he may appear to be in, Philander is not as clunky and as he looks. He can bowl longer spells or return for a fourth or fifth spell; he didn’t because he has come off an injury that could have ruled him out of the first Test but South Africa were desperate for him to play, so desperate that they managed him.”Going into that Lord’s Test I was probably a bit undercooked,” he admitted. “I had a chat with the higher powers but they wanted me to play. I’ve just got back from an ankle injury and literally bowled that week before the Test match. I found my rhythm in this one. Hopefully I’ll be a bigger threat for the last two.”South Africa’s whole attack is thinking that. Their success at Trent Bridge will likely mean that they keep the four-seam attack for The Oval with Duanne Olivier dropping out for Kagiso Rabada and Morris keeping his place. That means Morris will be rewarded for pace and persistence and given an opportunity to work on consistency, which he has shown he could have.After three wayward overs in a first-spell in which he “got excited” according to du Plessis by the amount of swing and overwhelmed by the options available to him, Morris returned to deliver a solid second spell at the end of the first innings and two of the best balls of the match in the second to get rid of England’s two best batsmen. He bowled Joe Root with a yorker which straighten late to beat the edge and had Alastair Cook in a tangle against a vicious short ball, signs of how quickly he learnt from his first three overs.”What happened was that Chris is new to Test cricket, the ball was moving all over the place and he got excited by how much it was swinging,” du Plessis said. “There was a lot of thinking going on: ‘Okay I want to bowl inswing, outswing, I want to seam the ball. I want to keep the run rate down, not go for boundaries.’ So there was a lot of information going on in his head. I thought at the time it was important for him to clear his head completely. I could see his head was spinning. So I said just bowl as fast as you can, and after that hopefully your action will come through.”Philander also saw that Morris could offer something and told du Plessis, “we should just trust him and give him an opportunity” and Morris rewarded that trust. “His control surprised me. We know he is an x-factor bowler, so to see now that he has some consistency creeping in is huge for us. That adds to our x-factor as a team now that we have four very high quality seam bowlers.”So do they have anything close to Kallis? The answer is not absolutely not.

Ben Cutting had only 23 balls left to salvage an IPL final and he had to slog, and he made it look so beautiful

Alagappan Muthu in Bangalore30-May-2016Is there purity in slogging? It brings a crowd alive. It demoralises a bowler. But can it make a batsman feel accomplished? Gully cricketers clear their front legs and swipe to leg. Tailenders do it routinely, but even they love hitting a proper shot. Ben Cutting did not have the time for such philosophical debates. He had only 23 balls left to salvage an IPL final and he had to slog, and he made it look so beautiful.Cutting may have spotted Virat Kohli arranging the field. AB de Villiers was patrolling the straight boundary. Chris Gayle was stationed inside the 30-yard circle. Shane Watson would be running in to bowl the next over. And with only 147 on the board at the start of the 17th over, it seemed like Sunrisers Hyderabad had brought a knife to a bazooka party.Royal Challengers Bangalore made their play. An around-the-wicket barrage designed to tuck Cutting up. Only it backfired. Wildly. Sunrisers made 61 runs after he came in, in four overs. That’s more than two-and-a-half runs per ball. You might think such numbers point to a spell of inventive strokeplay and premeditation with appropriate touches of luck. But Cutting didn’t move around in his crease. He didn’t look for scoops or reverse sweeps or switch hits. He relied on the simplest and most easily replicable of methods. A still head, a steady base and sheer strength. It was game-changing.Cutting’s success depended on his reading of the situation. Watson bowling from around the wicket could mean one of two things – yorkers and bouncers. The field was set for both eventualities. Long-off and long-on were back. So were deep square leg and point. The problem with such a line of attack, however, is that the batsman knows exactly what the bowler is trying to do, not to mention it all but rules lbw out. So Cutting could hide deep in his crease to pounce on yorkers that lost their way and bouncers that didn’t rise high enough. He hit half the balls he faced to and over the boundary and Sunrisers got to 208 – eight more than the total they wanted, eight more than what Royal Challengers could manage.”I thought at one stage we might have struggled to get 180-190, but an exceptional knock by Ben Cutting to come out and do what he did,” captain David Warner said. “We go back to the auction to the belief our coach Tom [Moody] and [VVS] Laxman who had the belief that we needed another allrounder to be there just in case Moises [Henriques] was not fit or unable to play. But it worked, and he added an extra string to our bow and it paid off tonight at this venue. I am a firm believer of runs on board in any final situation put pressure on [the opposition]. And 208 to me equals almost 215-220 in this situation.”It can be hard for an opponent to ignore Royal Challengers’ firepower, especially at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium where 40,000 people expect the visiting team to be good little bowling machines.Now imagine one of the first things you do after coming to the middle is run your partner out. Cutting was left clueless by a Watson yorker and by the time he realised the ball had barely dribbled past the pitch, the non-striker had taken his frantic steps out of his crease to be a signal for a single. No sooner had Naman Ojha responded than he was dismissed.Cutting could easily have been rattled. He was playing only his fourth match of the IPL, which took his total number of T20 matches in India to eight; not the kind of numbers that foster self-belief. But there was no second thought in the method he chose once he dispatched a low full-toss from Watson over midwicket. All it took was a simple front-foot stride towards the ball. Royal Challengers were a bit too funky for their own good and Cutting, well, cut the funk out of his game to come good.It must have helped, of course, that the release shot came the same over he lost Ojha in. Then came the heave that left the stadium behind and its occupants dumbstruck. A 117m biff over square leg, because where else should a waist-high full toss from around the stumps be dispatched?Cutting kept it just as simple with ball in hand, hitting back of a length, targeting the stumps, and working batsmen out. One of them was Gayle and an hour later his team was wondering how they had lost after making 200 runs.

A sublime knock from Steven Smith, soaking in a sunset in the SCG members’ pavilion and groovy music made the semi-final clash between Australia and India a memorable one

Nikhil Chouguley27-Mar-2015Choice of match:
The semi-finals of the cricket World Cup are a natural choice for anyone who likes hunting for “big game”. The fact that it was India v Australia, added a touch of romance, drama and guaranteed heartbreak.Team supported:
I saw destiny in the prophetic words of the pop princess Taylor Swift: “I got a blank space baby, and I’ll write your name.” I decided to fill that blank space with India. I’m not the biggest fan of crickets, especially the chirpy creatures that provoke a sense of despair when they cross your path. It’s probably how the Indian team felt when faced with Australia.Key performer
For the first 30 overs, Steven Smith was sublime. He had an extra split second to cut, drive and pull the Indian bowlers and he created the platform for Australia’s mammoth total, which put the match beyond India’s reach. For India, MS Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan entertained with their big hits, as did Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane with credible 40s. Sadly, no one lasted long enough to seriously challenge Australia. The two Mitchells bowling ferocious bouncers with Test match-like fields never let India get a toehold in the match.Wow moment
I was seated in the members pavilion at the SCG. Built over 130 years ago, this is a building steeped in sporting history, Victorian architecture and has the Don Bradman stand as its neighbour. The layout of the pavilion means that members and a few lucky spectators can sit close to the Australian players’ change room, wander up the carpeted stairs into a bar (which served artisanal coffee and gastro pub cuisine on match day) and lord over the floodlit playing arena. My wow moment came when a setting sun magnified the beauty of our sport at the SCG.Shot of the day
There were two shots that stood out for me. The first by Aaron Finch, who ramped Mohit Sharma for four, reminded of a surgeon’s precision and an ice-skater’s poise when he guided the ball. Poetry in motion for such a big lad. Rohit Sharma depositing Johnson’s 148 kph screamer into the stands was a moment of collective release of emotions, and one of the moments in the game when India competed.Crowd meter
The stands were packed to capacity. Out of the 42,000 spectators, 70% were Indian, buzzing, heaving, and the heat was on when Australia claimed a bump-ball catch.
In Sydney, during the lunch hour, half of the central business district is busy running half-marathons in the nearby botanical gardens. For a nation with sport at its core, this sense of sportsmanship and respect for the opposition was evident even at the match. There was competitive banter among the spectators, but good cricket was cheered all round by the Australians and Indians alike.

Two kangaroos on pogo sticks jumping away, and four orange Lycra-clad turbanators impressed the fashionista in me. This was complemented by the myriad blues and tri-coloured ethnic wear that Indian spectators generally show up in.Entertainment
In terms of music, the DJs had a good sense of humour and timing. They opened with to get the crowd swaying. Avicii’s , was almost a prophecy of the result India would face.Surprisingly, the DJ had a highly evolved sense of Indian music. The ethnic flavour was provided by Pussy Cat Dolls’ version of , to get the tears flowing and Men at Work’s every time an Indian wicket fell.Marks out of 10
8. It was a one-sided thumping! Well done to the Australian team, they played like champions in the making. As for India, the shoulders are drooping with disappointment, but the head is still held high with honour.

Blessed with an ability to swing the bat liberally and be equally care-free in the field, Ben Stokes is a bright spark for Durham who is catching the eye of England’s hierarchy

Vithushan Ehantharajah06-Aug-2013″No one needed to sit me down and tell me – you quickly realise how foolish you were,” Ben Stokes said ruefully in the Lord’s pavilion.In February, during a challenging tour of Australia as a member of the England Lions squad, Stokes, along with Kent’s Matt Coles, found himself returning home early. “Alcohol related incidents”, or some variant of was echoed throughout the press, as ECB performance director David Parsons, in charge of the tour, spoke of previous warnings going unheeded.Stokes couldn’t have timed this final misdemeanour worse. England team director Andy Flower had just stopped over in Australia, on his way to New Zealand for the Test series, as the two roommates embarked on the night out that broke the camel’s back. It is thought that Flower rubberstamped their early return home.Understandably, Stokes, the Durham allrounder, is sheepish went reflecting six months on. He has previous after he was arrested in 2011 for obstructing a police officer.”I knew what I had to do when I got back to England to make sure I got my career back on track,” Stokes said. “I know I had a lot of work to do to get the England selectors back on my side.”Selection in the Twenty20 series with New Zealand, with the majority of England’s Champions Trophy squad rested, represents a pardon of sorts. But less than a month later, it seemed he had convinced Flower of his reform and reiterated his worth.Ahead of the 2nd Investec Ashes Test, Stokes was on the Nursery Ground training with the senior side. Net work with Graham Gooch, a bowl at the top order to keep the overs ticking over and some extensive drills with Richard Halsall was tough, but the chance to reconnect with the national setup once again was welcome.”It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the one day team,” Stokes said. “It’s pretty nerve-racking if I’m honest. To be around the Test squad and to share a changing room, sitting next to some great England players gives you butterflies. But it’s nice to know that you know them and they know who I am. That settles things a bit. It’s just nice to be involved again.”This heightened sense of responsibility has extended into Stokes’ game, specifically his batting, which has helped Durham reach the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 as one of the two best third-placed sides.Occupying No. 5, he has a hat-trick of scores that secured three out of Durham’s final four wins to take them out of the North group. His most notable, a 72 off 48 balls against Nottinghamshire, came with his side struggling on 30 for 3 after six overs – 130 shy of their target. In the end, Durham won off the final ball.

“I was born with that desire to throw myself about. I do try and practice the most unlikely catches.”

Up against an impressive Northants outfit on Tuesday, who boast this year’s revelation and leading wicket-taker, Pakistani fast-bowler Azharullah, his form will be tested.”The way games have panned out, I think it’s given me the chance to fulfil my role as ‘finisher’,” Stokes said. “It’s one thing to take that responsibility on but you need to back it up. The game at Trent Bridge was that moment for me as it then gave me the confidence to do it. Then, with games against Derbyshire and Leicestershire coming within six days, I was able to carry that over and do the job in those matches, too.” Stokes made 46 and 41 not out as Durham finished with a flourish.Apart from his hitting, which has allowed him to clear the fence 18 times – the most by any player in this year’s competition – Stokes’ fielding borders on freakish. In the final group match against Derbyshire, he sent Dan Redfern back to the pavilion with a stunning catch at long-off, while also displaying his athleticism off his own bowling to run out Alex Hughes.But his kamikaze approach to fielding has also caused him problems, most notably against Surrey in a Yorkshire Bank 40 clash at The Oval where he was stretchered off after taking a superb diving catch to get rid of Jason Roy that had his body seemingly bent in three. Luckily, he was back the very next day for the County Championship match between the two sides, albeit playing a limited role in the field and not bowling. Typically, he saw Durham home to a five wicket win with an unbeaten 35.”I’m not too sure why I field the way I do,” he said with a grin. “I think I was born with that desire to throw myself about. I do try and practice the most unlikely catches – that way you’re ready when one comes along that needs you to do something a bit special.”Twenty20 matches are much closer than they used to be and batsmen are getting better at both setting a target and chasing one down. Any way you can shave a few runs off their total or hold them back in a chase is invaluable. You’ve got to put your body on the line.”Still without a T20 title to their name, Durham have the right blend of experience and youth to at least see them through to their second Finals Day. No one better reflects the strength and exuberance of that youth like Ben Stokes – a future star in waiting.