ICC World Cup 2019 | Extremely impressed by Ben Stokes, says Eoin Morgan

Ben Stokes lead England’s charge with the bat in the first encounter of the World Cup between England and South Africa. He blasted 89 runs in 79 deliveries and even took an athletic catch in the 35th over of the second innings. The all-rounder jumped high to grab a catch at the boundary line which left the spectators in awe. The catch is even being dubbed as one of the greatest ever catches in cricket. Not only this, the 27-year-old even picked up the last two wickets to end the South African innings. The skipper Eoin Morgan was mighty impressed with Stokes’ exploits.

“Extremely impressed. He had a field day and especially that catch he took was absolutely outstanding. To have a match-winner like that in the side, he is someone who lifts absolutely everybody and I thought the bowling unit really did get off to a great start and continued to learn from the first innings and then put into place in second innings,” Morgan said after the match as reported by Hindustan Times.

Jofra Archer started his spell from the second over and forced Hashim Amla to retire hurt in the fourth over itself after his 145 kmph bouncer hit the batsman’s helmet grille. The Barbados-born bowler even dismissed Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen to end South Africa’s hopes of chasing down the target of 312 runs. The skipper expects the bowler to put in more match-winning performances.

“Slowish pitch, he bowled fast and accurate and it’s outstanding. He is taking everything in his stride at the moment and he is improving everyday and that’s very exciting. Huge amount of pleasure. It’s an area we were always trying to improve on and certainly we are looking for match winning contributions in the field.

“Delighted to be off and running in this tournament. It’s more satisfying than normal. We were very good today, the wicket didn’t allow us to execute our plan which is to try and score quite a considerable total, but I thought the maturity and smart cricket we played shows the effort we put in the last two years and the experience as well,” signed off the 32-year-old.