Ben Stokes was the hero of the most entertaining World Cup finals ever. Just over two weeks since the match, Stokes answers questions about the game and especially the special six he got!
England Test cricketer James Anderson had claimed that Stokes had asked the umpires to cancel the extra four runs that he got because of a deflection off his bat. However, Stokes has declined it.
On a BBC podcast Tuffers and Vaughan, Stokes said, “I saw all of that. I was thinking to myself, did I say that? But hand on heart, I did not go up to the umpires and say something like that to the umpires. I went straight to Tom Latham and said ‘Mate, I am so sorry’, looked over to Kane (Williamson) and said ‘I’m sorry’.”
The England all-rounder was asked about what was going through his mind during the final over of the World Cup Final. He explained it very well. Here are the excerpts:
Balls 1 and 2: Stokes wanted to face the entire over. Hence he did not run off the first two balls even after missing them because he wanted to keep strike.
Ball 3: Stokes swept Boult over mid-wicket over a humongous six. He said, “I’ve never played a sweep shot off a seamer before so I’ve no idea why I chose to play that shot…I just decided I’m going to sweep this. I’ve faced Trent (Boult) a lot of times at the end of innings and when he misses his yorkers it’s a full toss.”
Ball 4: This ball produced the overthrow from Martin Guptill. “That’s obviously been a big talking point. Don’t think there’s much to say. If you do that a thousand times again it’s not going to happen. Martin Guptill threw the ball in from 70 yards near the boundary and its managed to hit my bat off a full dive and go to the boundary. it’s a freak, freak accident,” he said.
Ball 5: “Didn’t really plan to go for the second run,” probably because he thought Boult would throw it at his end but instead ran Rashid out.
Ball 6: “I told Woody (Mark Wood), get your skates on, we’re going to run here.” Wood got run-out on the last ball and the match got tied.
The 28-year-old said, “Before that, it was just try and get as many runs as you can. But here, it was if I get out – in terms of if I hit one in the air and am out – then we lose. We don’t win the World Cup. When I look back at the moment at the end of my career, I will be happy with the decision because I had decided to hit it along the ground and run.”
Ben Stokes will feature in England’s Test squad for the Ashes series that begins on 1 August 2019.
(Source: Indian Express)
