ICC World Cup 2019 | Winning first game like that is most pleasing, says Ben Stokes

South Africa had won the toss against England at The Oval on Thursday and opted to bowl first. Despite Jonny Bairstow’s wicket in the very first over, England got off to a fine start as Jason Roy and Joe Root stitched a 106-run partnership. However, both the batsman were dismissed in successive overs, thereby, skipper Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes, who top scored with 89, took charge to take the total to 311. The South African batsmen were decimated by Jofra Archer to be skittled out for 207, handing England a comprehensive victory. Stokes was delighted to end up on the winning side.

"The most pleasing thing is we have got the first game out of the way and winning like that. There were a few nerves knocking about, there definitely was for me and I have not felt like that in a long time. There has been such a long build-up to the world cup and answering questions on it for about a year now, and now we are finally here and it's nice to walk away with a win,” he said after the match, reported Cricbuzz.

"The best thing about being an all-rounder is you can influence the game pretty much the whole 100 overs - it is always nice when you can contribute to the team winning," expressed the 27-year-old.

Adil Rashid was bowling the 35th over when Stokes took a breath-taking catch of Andile Phehlukwayo at the boundary ropes. The catch has become the talking point and the all-rounder also opened up about it.

"The crowd's reaction behind me was pretty awesome - I just tried to take that in as much as I could. I bowled the next over and Morgs [Eoin Morgan] had to come to me and ask if everything was alright if my heart rate had gone down - things like that catch (can) do (to) get you fizzed up. The crowd today were phenomenal which is the best thing about having a home world cup.

"When you do take catches like that, especially when you know you've started in the wrong position - made a relatively straightforward catch into a hard one - but I didn't really know, quite hard to react to be honest, I just tried to take it in,” added Stokes.