Joe Root, England's captain, believes his team is "in the presence of greatness", after paying handsome tribute to his "Mr Incredible", Ben Stokes for yet another display of matchwinning bravado in the second Test against West Indies.
Although England's 113-run victory at Emirates Old Trafford was a fine team performance, featuring key contributions from the likes of Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Dom Sibley, the contest was set up by Stokes' immense allround haul of 254 runs and three wickets, including the vital scalp of Jermaine Blackwood on the stroke of tea on the final day of the match.
And, having followed up his first-innings 176 - in which he took a diligent 255 balls to reach his hundred - with a trail-blazing 78 not out from 57 in a pinch-hitting opener's role in the second, Root felt sure that Stokes' extraordinary ability to adapt his game to meet the match situation would ensure the grandstand performances would keep on coming.
"He's Mr Incredible. I suppose," Root said after the match, referencing the muscle-bound cartoon superhero of the same name. "He looks a bit like him, and will probably end up the same shape too.
"I certainly think he can keep performing at this level. I think the sky's the limit for him really, when you watch how he goes about things, there's no reason why he can't keep performing this consistently.
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"To have such a complete game, and so many different gears at your disposal, allows you the ability to keep getting better. But most importantly, if he continues to read situations the way he is, and keeps the confidence that he's playing with at the moment, there's no reason why we can't continue to see such brilliant performances as we have done this week, and over the last 12 months really."
After leading the team in Root's absence in last week's first Test, and producing a pair of 40s in England's four-wicket defeat, Stokes stepped up the tempo of his performance with the series on the line, much as he had done in a vastly contrasting atmosphere at Headingley last summer, where his unbeaten 135 hauled England to a one-wicket victory just as Australia seemed to be on the brink of sealing the Ashes.
But whereas that contest had played out in front of a raucous home crowd at the height of an unforgettable summer in which Stokes had already sealed England's World Cup glory, the only live witnesses to his feats this time around were the players and coaches on both sides, and a handful of media, with the contest taking place behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
"It's very difficult to compare the two on a number of levels," said Root. "There was the magnitude of an Ashes series - a series on the line, running out of partners, running out of options, everything sort of seemed to be dead in the water - and being able to get us across the line.
"Here he showed a bit more versatility really, within himself, and the fact that he's more complete player now. I think on a personal front he thoroughly enjoyed this week in a different way to Headingley.
"From a team point of view, it'd be very easy for us to not appreciate how good a performance this was, because of the lack of atmosphere within the ground. Well, I don't think that's the case. I think everyone understands that we are watching a player at the peak of his powers, at the peak of world cricket, delivering time and time again.
"We have to savour that, we have to appreciate that and understand that we are - without trying to pump his tyres too much - in the presence of greatness."