Abhijit Deshmukh at the MCA Stadium, Pune
After six consecutive defeats, England, the defending champions, finally registered their second win of the 2023 World Cup. Inspired by a thrilling 84-ball 108 from Ben Stokes, and Dawid Malan’s brisk 87 (74 balls), England piled up 339-9 before bowling out the Netherlands for just 179 at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali shared six wickets. This all-round display helped England leapfrog the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to seventh place in the table.
Victory against Pakistan in Kolkata on Saturday – Pakistan need a win to have any chance of making the last four – would almost certainly confirm England’s qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
At the same venue in March 2021, Stokes had been dismissed for 99 in an ODI against India. Though England had won that game as well, this time Stokes ensured that he wouldn’t miss out on the three figures. The first half of his innings was steady, with Stokes taking 58 balls for his half-century. However, he took only 20 deliveries to then race to a hundred.
A reverse sweep off Paul van Meekeren in the 48th over gave Stokes his first World Cup hundred, an innings studded with six sixes and six fours.
Prior to this, his highest World Cup score was 89 against South Africa in the 2019 tournament, where he was the star of England’s triumph in the final. Stokes had retired from ODIs in July 2022, but was persuaded to return to the England team last August to be part of the title defence. That defence, or lack of, will go down as the worst in the competition’s history, but Stokes at least managed to give the fans who have travelled around the country something to savour.
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Abhijit Deshmukh at the MCA Stadium, Pune After six consecutive defeats, England, the defending champions, finally registered their second win of the 2023 World Cup. Inspired by a thrilling 84-ball…
The post Stokes Heroics Arrive Far Too Late for England appeared first on RevSportz | Latest Sports News.
