Ben Stokes dismissed any scepticism about his ability
to play 50-over cricket after 14 months of ODI retirement at the KIA Oval. As
he continued, he claimed the record for the highest score by an Englishman in
the format with 182 off 124 to set up a resounding victory over New Zealand. He
had already scored his fourth century in the format from 76 balls.
Despite sharing a third-wicket stand worth 199 runs in
165 balls with Dawid Malan, Stokes left the field in the third over with Trent
Boult swinging the new ball and England struggling at 13 for 2. In total,
Lockie Ferguson’s nine overs cost him 80 runs when he launched a merciless
assault on him, scoring 56 runs off the 30 balls he faced.
Stokes decided to stand and deliver the speech while
he battled his knee issue. He hit nine sixes in all, including six in the last
31 balls. The sell-out crowd stood to cheer the hero of England’s 2019 World
Cup victory as he holed out to square leg while trying to hit a tenth,
doubtless believing that he could still motivate them to a successful defence
of their title in India.
The notional pursuit of 369 by New Zealand quickly
devolved into glorified middle practise. Phillips, who scored a career-high 72,
was the only batter to reach 30 as New Zealand crumbled for 187. Chris Woakes
bowled eight overs on the reel from the Pavilion conclude to conclude the game.
He finished his opening spell with 3 for 31.
“It’s good to come back in after a while out and
put a big contribution into us winning the game,” Stokes said. “Today
was good for me personally, just to get familiarity again with how 50-over
cricket goes. We lost a few quick wickets and I wanted to go out and put them
under a bit of pressure. There were a couple of times I had to check myself
because I looked up and there were still 23-24 overs left… you have way more
time than you think.
“I didn’t really know [about the record] until
the bloke on the tannoy announced it – then I got out next ball,” he said.
“There were a couple of stages where I was scoring quite freely and felt
like I wanted to keep going and going and going… in 50-over cricket, we
always want to go out and put on big scores but [it was a case of] realising
how much more time I had.”