Following his side’s win and record-breaking knock of 182 against New Zealand in the third ODI, England all-rounder Ben Stokes jokingly “apologised” to teammate Jason Roy for surpassing his highest individual score for England. Stokes surpassed Jason Roy’s 180 made against Australia at Melbourne in 2018 to guide England to register a mammoth 368 against the Kiwis in the third ODI of the four-match series at The Oval on Wednesday. A record-breaking knock by Ben Stokes coupled with solid performances by bowlers guided an all-round England to a 181-run win over New Zealand.
“Really pleased. Apologise to Jason (Jason Roy – for breaking his record of highest individual score for England). We spoke about putting New Zealand under pressure and getting to a good start and even after losing those early wickets, we wanted to be positive. Once we got going, we did not want them (bowlers) to settle. As experienced players, we need to guide the younger players.
“He (Malan) is a very consistent player, he is a very quality player, rotates the strike very well as well and missed out on the milestone after getting a strangle down leg. I am feeling much better (in terms of fitness), Test matches are a bit longer but ODIs surely are not that demanding,” said Stokes in a post-match presentation.
Coming to the match, England was put to bat first by the Kiwis and were struggling at 13/2 when Stokes came out. He had a 199-run partnership for the third wicket with Dawid Malan (96 in 95 balls, 12 fours and a six) and a 78-run stand for the fourth wicket with skipper Jos Buttler (38 in 24 balls, six fours and a six), which took England to 368 in 48.1 overs despite a lower-order collapse.
Trent Boult (5/51) and Ben Lister (3/69) were the pick of the bowlers for the Kiwis.
In the chase of 339, Kiwis were rocked by the pace trio of Chris Woakes, Reece Topley and Sam Curran and were struggling at 70/5. Glenn Phillips (72 in 76 balls, with five fours and two sixes) and Rachin Ravindra (28 in 22 balls, five fours) tried fighting back but NZ was bundled out for 187 in just 39 overs.
Woakes (3/31) and Livingstone (3/16) were the pick of the bowlers for NZ. Topley took two, Curran and Moeen Ali got one each.
Stokes took home the ‘Player of the Match’ award. England is leading the series 2-1 with a match to go.
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