Watch: Ben Stokes hits six into England dressing room on the way to 12th Test century

Ben Stokes smashed a six into his own dressing room to bring up his half century on the way to a masterful 12th Test ton that he scored on Day 2 of the second Test against South Africa.

England captain Ben Stokes scored a masterful century on Friday to put his team in the driver's seat in their second Test against South Africa. While Stokes was among the players who seemed to embrace England's new aggressive batting approach, popularly called ‘Bazball’, during their series against New Zealand and match against India earlier this year, he played a far more controlled innings on Friday, eventually being dismissed for 103 off 163 balls.

Stokes scored his 12th Test century.  (Action Images via Reuters)

However, he did hit sixes and fours whenever he got the chance and even reached his half century by hitting a six into the England dressing room. Stokes came down the pitch and unleashed a shot over long-on to cross 50 in 101 balls. He then accelerated and scored his century in 158 balls.

Stokes and Ben Foakes put up a 173-run partnership, which helped England extend take their lead to close to 200. They had come together when England were 147/5 and by the time Stokes fell to Kagiso Rabada, the score was 320/6 and England's lead eventually went past the 200-run mark.

Stokes had earlier starred with the ball as well for England, taking the important wickets of Aiden Markram and Rassie Van der Dussen as South Africa were all out for just 151 runs. England are looking to level the three-match series, having been hammered in the first Test by an innings and 12 runs within three days at Lord's. It was England's first defeat since Stokes took over as Test captain and Brendon McCullum was appointed as head coach of the Test team.

England have made waves with their aggressive batting under Stokes and McCullum, chasing down targets in excess of 250 runs with ease in four consecutive Test matches. They chased down a target of 372 in the last of those matches against India in just over two and a half sessions.