England’s talisman understands rhythms of white-ball cricket and remains capable of making the opposition fall apart
Perhaps England’s cricketers can now apply the Alex Ferguson Theory of Eternal Non-Defeat to their World Cup endgame. We never actually lose, you see. No. What happens is we simply run out of time to win. And every single one of you, yes all eight of those mathematically superior ICC World Cup co-combatants, are a bunch of lucky clock-watchers.
In reality England have spent the last week acting out their own World Cup at Bernies, a cadaver of a champion team still being marched around the place, features stretched into a ghostly version of game-face, prisoners of a format where you can die your own tournament death but still find yourself forced to meet the dawn all the way from Ahmedabad to Kolkata.
Written by Barney Ronay at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/nov/08/cricket-world-cup-ben-stokes-england-netherlands under the title “Ben Stokes’ onslaught against Dutch a reminder of elite status as ODI batter | Barney Ronay”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
