Ben Stokes: A record-breaking innings by numbers...

Ben Stokes began his summer in the most remarkable style imaginable, tearing the record books to shreds on an astonishing morning at New Road

When Ben Stokes came to the crease on the second morning of Durham's LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Worcestershire, there was always going to be plenty of interest in how England's new Test captain fared.

What no one could have foreseen is what happened next…

64: The number of balls required to reach the fastest first-class century by a Durham player, brought up in astonishing fashion with five consecutive sixes and a four off the bowling of Josh Baker, the 18-year-old left-arm spinner.

17: Andrew Symonds' record had stood since 1995, when he smashed 16 sixes in an innings for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan at Abergavenny. Graham Napier later equalled that figure playing for Essex in 2011. But Stokes usurped them both with the first ball after the lunch interval, smashing Ben Gibbon – on his County Championship debut – over long-on to reach the English record. He ended six short of Colin Munro's world record.

17: Stokes' fifty was quick – he brought up the milestone in just 47 deliveries – but it was how he went from his half century to three figures that was so remarkable. He required just 17 balls, including a run of eight sixes in 10 balls.

^{Stokes' astonishing innings broke multiple records (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)}

4: Only four players have ever hit five sixes in the same over in English first-class cricket, but Stokes has now achieved the feat twice – albeit 11 years ago, when he did the same against Hampshire. Once again, it was a young (at the time) left-arm spinner in Liam Dawson who was on the receiving end.

147: Not since 2005, when John Crawley raced from 150 to 298 for Hampshire, has a player scored more runs in the morning session of a County Championship match. In the last 80 years, only Crawley and Brian Lara – during his epic 501* – have made more than Stokes before lunch.

5.18: By the time he'd fallen, caught on the boundary by Jack Haynes as he went for an 18th six, Stokes was clearing the rope marginally more than once per over across the course of his 88-ball knock. There were 15 sixes in the morning session alone.