84 vs New Zealand (ICC World Cup Final, 2019, Lords)
Once again in the tournament, the English all-rounder walked in when England was under pressure. This time in the big final game. The home team was in need of 171 runs off 183 balls when Ben Stokes arrived at the crease.
This time, Stokes got off the mark on his first ball by whipping the short ball towards the fine leg.
Stokes’ method of step out and smash, fetched him the first boundary in the square leg region. Throughout the tournament, whenever Stokes stepped down the crease he was able to make sweet contact with the ball.
Later when James Neesham was brought in to attack instead of Mitchell Santner, the blackcaps’ main spinner, the gambling went lucky for the kiwis with the wicket of Eoin Morgan on the very first ball.
The end of the brilliant spell from De Grandhomme, New Zealand’s best bowler of that day, relieved the English duo. They started rotating their strikes and kept on the scoreboard switching. Meanwhile, the Durham all-rounder started finding himself adopted to the conditions.
Stokes found no threat in picking his boundaries. New Zealanders to the surprise bowled more short pitch deliveries than expected to make things easy for the batsmen. The low full toss from Boult was guided for single to the long-off, and it took Stokes to his half-century in 70 balls.
Successive dismissals of Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes initiated more pressure on Ben Stokes as England needed 34 runs off the last 3 overs. The four off Stokes bat in between midwicket and square leg fielders erupted the whole Lords crowd.
49th over
Neesham’s second last over of the innings started with the dismissal of Plunkett.
Stokes’ sweep over the cow corner for six took England closer to the target.
Jofra Archer’s wicket at the last ball added more problems for England.
The tight over from Neesham let only 9 runs, and that made England go for 15 runs off the last over.
Let’s relive the most celebrated final over ball-by-ball.
Dramatic last over.
49.1: The first ball was a fuller length ball on the offside, Stokes wasn’t able to go over the covers. Instead, it went straight to the extra cover fielder.
49.2: Boult bowled in the same length and line. Again Ben Stokes failed to convert it to runs.
49.3: Acknowledging where Boult is going to bowl the third one, Ben Stokes shuffled outside off and made a slog sweep off the slow yorker over mid-wicket for a six. The English fans were brought alive with that boundary.
49.4: A full toss to the middle, Stokes tried to hit it over midwicket, but the ball didn’t connect well and went to midwicket fielder. Ben Stokes rushed for the second, the throw from Martin Guptill got deflected from the overstretched bat of diving Ben Stokes, and the ball reached the boundary, which in turn produced six runs for England.
3 runs off 2 balls required.
49.5: Ben Stokes guided the ball to long-off and forced Mark Wood for the second run, and it took out the wicket of Mark Wood.
49.6: When 2 was required of 1 ball, Stokes dropped the full toss ball to the long-on to run a quick two, but the non-striker wasn’t fast enough to complete the second and got dismissed.
The world cup final ended up in a tie. And the match was taken forward for a super over.
Fantasied Super over
England made 15 runs off the 6 balls, in which Ben Stokes made the crucial contribution of 7 runs.
The three runs came off with a top edge and the sweep shot in the gap between square leg and mid-wicket.
New Zealand scored the same runs of 15 in 6 balls. According to the ICC rule, England won the match because of their number of boundaries, which was higher than that of the Kiwis.
Benjamin Andrew Stokes was awarded Player of the match for his sportive 84 runs and his 7runs contribution in the super over.
Ben Stokes became the reason for England to hold the world cup of 2019.
