ENG vs NZ | Takeaways – Ben Stokes historic outing and New Zealand incredible adaptability

07/15/2019

If the last ball of the match was not enough, this final went down to the final over where England just managed to emerge victorious on the back of number of boundaries hit in the innings. Ben Stokes produced a match-winning knock to ensure England stayed alive in the hunt till the end.

Liam Plunkett quietly proves his mettle in the middle overs

One may hardly get intimidated by Liam Plunkett’s bowling, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t effective. He doesn’t meet the orthodox criteria of a fast bowler, he may not have that express pace to trouble a batsman, but he banks on his wily variations and length to outfox anyone at the crease.

England are stuffed with star players, their bowling has the likes of Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes. All are match-winners on a given day, but there is one guy who goes about his job quietly and bowls those ugly overs relentlessly. He has not only kept things tight in the middle overs and tighten the noose, but also picked wickets in heap when most of the times batsmen are looking to build an innings without taking much of a risk.

Plunkett usually comes to bowl in between the 11-50 overs, this is also the phase when batsmen hardly look to take on the bowlers. But does that mean Plunkett has been bogged down? Of course not, since the last world Cup, Plunkett has bagged 59 wickets in overs 11-40 in 57 innings, which is by far the highest for any fast bowler.

In this encounter, he broke the Kiwi spine with three key wickets in the middle overs and steered his side to total command. Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls were stitching a match-winning stand and threatened to take the game away from England, but Plunkett took charge and did what he does the best – get breakthroughs under the pump. He got rid of both the well set batsman and then inflicted further damage by getting the better of Henry Nicholls. Needless to say, Plunkett has proved his mettle quietly for England in the middle overs.

Fly, Ben Stokes, fly!

He was left stranded against Sri Lanka and was undone by a brilliant delivery from Mitchell Starc against Australia but he stuck to his guns and delivered the best performance of his ODI career in the most important game of his life.

He may not come as one of the nicest guys in contemporary cricket and his all-round skills typify destructive cricket. Stokes has been sensational to watch with the bat and reaped fruitful results for showing determination under the pump.

When Eoin Morgan was undone by a brilliant effort from Lockie Ferguson, England’s hopes of lifting the World Cup rested on Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler’s shoulders. The duo stitched a match-winning stand after which Buttler was dismissed at a very important stage. And from England’s point of view, they needed Stokes to play out the entire overs.

The southpaw showed some amazing temperament and kept milking boundaries every now and then to break the shackles. As it goes with the saying, fortune favours the brave, it did smile on Stokes’s brave shoulders as he got a reprieve in the 49th over and a overthrow off his bat earned him four extra runs. Stokes somehow managed to tie the game and backed his side to win the super over.

With him being in red hot form, England backed him to open the batting in the super over and the all-rounder didn’t disappoint. He smashed eight runs off three deliveries and ensured Jofra Archer had enough runs to defend in the final over. This is the kind of innings that makes legends from players and Stokes has inscribed his name in the history of ODI cricket with gold after this outing.

New Zealand are the best side when it comes to adapting to conditions

Prior to the start of the tournament, not many gave New Zealand a chance of making it to the finals and nine out of ten must have predicted a England-India encounter. But it wasn’t to be. The predictions were almost right till the semi-final encounter, where New Zealand created the biggest upset of the tournament by beating tournament favourites India and one of the key reasons behind it was the ability to adapt to the conditions.

After a series of disheartening defeats in the group stages, New Zealand knew that whatever happened in the past was just history and the next game was totally a new chapter. They assessed the conditions well and bowled extremely well to defend it. One would have felt that 240 was a cakewalk for the Indian side but their bowlers exploited the bwoling-friendly conditions brutally to sculpt a spot in the final.

Come final, though they fell short by a whisker, they were so close and missed out due to a couple of reasons including luck not going in their favour. Their bowlers did well to strike regularly and ensure England didn’t take the game away with some attacking batting. Matt Henry, Trent boult and Lockie Ferguson were outstanding, while de Grandhomme produced a brilliant spel to keep things tight. Their planning was amazing and execution was a step ahead. The death bowling was again fantastic but one partnership denied them a scintillating victory.

One could have only imagined for such a nerve-wracking final but New Zealand did almost every thing right with the ball to emerge victorious, but again it was almost.