Cape Town - For 44 minutes in the southwest of England Tristan Stubbs was having the time of his life.
He only faced 28 balls during that period. Throughout he wore a smile of someone that had just won the lottery.
Bristol may yet prove to be his winning ticket though for this surf-loving, hockey-playing kid from Knysna who showed that he can hit a long ball. In this ever-changing cricket landscape that we now reside in, that's the equivalent of the lucky numbers that will yet earn him millions of dollars.
"He looks a very, very good player," England’s T20 veteran Moeen Ali confirmed. "He hits the ball clean and the role that he's come in, it's not easy sometimes. He hit some massive sixes. You're always worried about someone like that, when he's in and playing the way he's playing.
"I played against him in the IPL and (although) he didn't get any runs but I've heard that he's a very good player. A lot of South African players talk very highly of him. He looks like a really good player."
Moeen had a front-row seat to Stubbs’ pyrotechnics show that yielded 72 runs, which included two fours and eight sixes.
It was Moeen that offered him "a rank drag down" as a generous introduction to international cricket which Stubbs graciously accepted.
"I was actually just really happy I got a ball down the leg side. I just wanted to get off the mark. Everything after that was a bonus," he told Cricket SA media.
From hereon the chaos was unleashed with Stubbs belting Moeen for three sixes in the next over to get his engine revving.
"I just thought if it's there, it must go. Once I hit the first one, I just had to carry on. I thought it was skidding on quite nicely. If it was there you could hit through it. If the ball was there, I tried to put it away," Stubbs added.
It is not often that David Miller has to take a backward step at the crease, but the Proteas stand-in captain added just five runs from nine balls to a 50-run partnership with Stubbs for the sixth wicket. Stubbs faced just seven balls more, but contributed 43.
The youngster was, however, quick to point out Miller’s role in the partnership.
"He was just keeping me calm, telling me to keep it simple," Stubbs said. "We were in it for a long time. The 10th over we were on the same score as they were on, so myself and David were saying, just keep going … if it's there, it's going. We tried to rotate the strike, and if it happened to be there, I just tried to put it away, and thankfully it came off."
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