England’s head coach Matthew Mott has revealed how the side’s “spiritual leader” Ben Stokes stepped in to rally the dressing room after their shock World Cup defeat by Afghanistan.
Stokes, who came out of one-day retirement to help defend the trophy he did more than anyone to win in 2019, has yet to feature in India after suffering a hip injury on the the eve of the tournament.
But Sunday’s upset in Delhi, where a side whose only previous win on this stage was a narrow one against Scotland eight years ago, led Stokes to address his team-mates during a dressing room debrief.
Test captain Stokes is on track to return in Saturday’s must-win clash against South Africa at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, but has already made his presence felt behind the scenes.
“He’s like the spiritual leader of the group in many ways and he certainly spoke really well after the game the other day,” said Mott.
“He spoke about that need to really assert ourselves, which he’s renowned for. I said ‘I’ve got this’ and just spoke, talked about the plan going forward for the next few days, and then Stokesy came in on the back of that.
“He really reinforced what was a great message, particularly for someone who’s sitting on the bench and has a bit of a different lens on things. I think it went down well, it brought us back to controlling what we can control, really.”
Mott’s own attempt at diagnosing England’s problems saw him suggest that the defending champions were suffering from a lack of self-belief.
Having become the most swaggering side on the planet during their reinvention from also-rans to world champions under Eoin Morgan, England looked uncharacteristically tentative in their losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan.
“You don’t lose your ability overnight but you can lose your confidence,” he said.
“It’s that confidence… puff your chest out, go out there and really take the game on, which this team has been renowned for over a long period of time.
“On reflection we’ve been the reactive team in those two games, so we need to turn that round really quickly.
“That was one of Stokesy’s biggest points – we’re normally the team that dictates terms and gets the other team unsettled, disrupted and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to do that.
“We’ve always been on the back foot, trying to pull things back. What we need to do is dominate those first 15 overs whether we bat first or bowl first in the next game.”
Brendon McCullum, Mott’s red-ball counterpart and joint architect of England’s ‘Bazball’ approach in the Test arena, made an unexpected appearance at the team’s Mumbai hotel on Tuesday after arriving on business.
McCullum memorably said on his appointment last year that he was not interested in the limited-overs job on account of it being too simple in contrast to reviving the Test team, a position Mott suggested may no longer stand.
“I just saw him down in the foyer and he said exactly the opposite!” he joked.
“I said, ‘do you want to do a little swap?’ We had a good chat and good catch up.”
Stokes’ likely return – which is all but certain provided he pulls up well after a thorough workout on Thursday – means Mott must grapple with a thorny selection issue.
Harry Brook has been keeping his spot warm and would ordinarily be expected to drop out, but his fluent 66 was easily England’s best innings against the Afghans and made a strong case for his retention.
Experienced seamer Chris Woakes and all-rounder Sam Curran are both vulnerable after struggling badly for form thus far, but with Stokes currently unavailable to bowl that only muddies the waters.
“It’s still up for debate. We’ll have some really good, robust conversations over the next 24 hours,” Mott said.
“I think we’re going to sit down as a selection group, get the numbers, get some theories out there. We’ll normally get to two or three XIs and then debate it, so all things are on the table at the moment.”
David Willey and Gus Atkinson are waiting if England do decide to cut Woakes after three poor outings in a row, but Mott is not ready to draw an emphatic line under the long-time leader of the attack.
“Over the history of Woakes’ career, he’s come out on top a lot more than he’s missed out,” he said.
“He hasn’t been at his best, and he’s the first to admit it, but he’s got a few credits in the bank.”
Hail King: Stand-in captain's 79 guides Windies to 28-run win over SA on successful return to Sabina Park
It was a welcome return of international cricket to Sabina Park, even moreso for stand-in captain Brandon King, who led from the front as West Indies downed South Africa by 28 runs in the first of their three Twenty20 (T20) warm-up encounters on Thursday.
King, who is leading the team for the first time on his home soil, gave the decent size crowd much to cheer about with a well-played 79 off 45 balls, which assisted the Caribbean side to 175-8 from their allotment, before Matthew Forde (3-27), Gudakesh Motie (3-25) and Obed McCoy (2-15), restricted South Africa to 147 in 19.5 overs.
Despite the absence of the main scoreboard –which has been out for almost four years now –as well as an underprepared tabled press area, King and company ensured that the first international game at the venue since 2022, was a successful one.
The 29-year-old, who is deputizing for compatriot Rovman Powell, attributed his Player-of-the-Match knock, which included six fours and six maximums, to the familiar conditions.
“Obviously it is leading up to the World Cup so we want to be playing good cricket and we got the win today, so we are happy with that and I think we played well all around,” King said in a post-game interview.
“I had the advantage of knowing the conditions well and I know that it is easiest to bat when it’s the new ball so I had to try and get a good start and I executed well. At the mid-way point I think we had 200-220 in mind as we had wickets in hand but it is a difficult wicket to bat on when the ball gets older, but we still managed to get a competitive total on this wicket,” he added.
After being asked to take first strike, King started positively, but lost opening partner Johnson Charles (one) in the fourth over with the score at 36.
However, he found another useful ally in Kyle Mayers, and the added a further 79 runs for the second wicket, with King, the aggressor raising his 10th international half-century off 27 balls in the sixth over when he drove a length delivery from Lungi Ngidi to the midwicket boundary.
The skipper continued to take the South African bowlers to task, before he eventually went, reaching for one of Andile Phehlukwayo that came off the toe of the bat and was caught by his opposite number Rassie van der Dussen.
Still, at 115-2 after 11 overs, West Indies remained on course for a massive total, but then came the familiar collapse as they lost three wickets in quick succession. Mayers was first to go for a 25-ball 34, including three sixes and a solitary four, with Andre Fletcher (one) and Fabian Allen (one) following.
In fact, apart from vice-captain Roston Chase, who made a measured unbeaten 32 off 30 balls, which had two fours and a six, none of the batsmen got into double figures.
Phehlukwayo (3-28) and Ottneil Baartman (3-26) did the damage for South Africa.
In reply, South Africa started with Quinton De Cock driving Matthew Forde’s first ball, a full length delivery, straight down the ground. However, the 22-year-old Barbadian responded immediately as he served up another full length delivery, just around off stump, which forced de Kock into another drive, but the left-hander got a slight edge and Andre Fletcher made no mistakes behind the stumps.
Debutant Ryan Rickelton (six) also had a brief stay in the middle, and from there, the visitors laboured, despite Reeza Hendricks making his 15th T20 international half-century. Hendricks, who was ninth man out with just two balls left of the innings, made a career-best 87 off 51 balls with six sixes and six fours.
Captain Rassie van der Dussen (17) and Matthew Breetzke (19) were the only other South African batsmen to reach double figures.
The second and third games of the series are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, at the same venue, ahead of the much-anticipated June-1-29 T20 World Cup hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
RCB needed a 'little bit more' to challenge Royals in playoff defeat, says Du Plessis
Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis admitted his side were "a little bit" short when setting the score in their Indian Premier League playoff defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.
RCB batted first but failed to capitalise on strong starts from Virat Kohli (33), Rajat Patidar (34) and Mahipal Lomror (32) as they finished on 172-8.
The Royals won with an over remaining, despite slipping to 160-6 in the 18th, as Rovman Powell got them over the line with an unbeaten 16.
"I think with the dew coming in the second innings, we thought we were a little bit short with the bat," Du Plessis said after the match on the official broadcast.
"It felt like we needed a push, a few more runs to make it even more competitive. So, I did think we were 20 runs shy of a good score on that pitch. But credit to our boys who fought really well, hanging in there right till the end. That's all you can ask for, a great fight.
"Batting first, it can be tough because the ball is sticking into the surface. You're thinking 190. But if you lose a couple of wickets, then the problem starts.
"What we found out this season is with obviously the extra batter and the longer batting line-ups because of the super sub [Impact Player], your par scores are really not what they used to be, especially if there's dew. So, we knew we needed a little bit more in terms of a score to challenge them."
RCB were the in-form team heading into the playoffs, having won each of their last six games to turn their season around, but they could not make it past the eliminator.
Despite falling at the first post-season hurdle, Du Plessis was still proud of the team’s achievements.
"A lot of teams would have probably fallen off after one [win] from nine [eight]," he added.
"We have got great characters in that dressing room, all of us really put our hands up with a lot of pride and a lot of fight in us to make sure we give our best and give absolutely everything we have. And to come back like that, winning six games in a row takes a lot of heart, takes a lot of character.
"So, it's a sad ending when it goes your way like that, you feel like is it possibly written in the stars that you could do something special here, but we weren't special tonight in terms of just pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat."
Andre Russell's final plea to Sunil Narine: "Windies will be happy if you play T20 World Cup"
In a heartfelt appeal, West Indies' star all-rounder Andre Russell has revealed that he made one last attempt to convince his Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) teammate and fellow West Indian, Sunil Narine, to reconsider his decision to sit out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Despite Narine's scintillating form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season, the enigmatic spinner has steadfastly opted out of the prestigious tournament, which is set to bowl off in the Caribbean and the USA on June 1.
Narine, who retired from international cricket in 2023, has been instrumental for KKR this season, excelling with both bat and ball. However, his last appearance for the West Indies was back in 2019, and his return to the international fold seems increasingly unlikely. This hasn't stopped Russell and others from trying to sway his decision.
Speaking to Star Sports, Russell expressed his admiration for Narine's performance and his desire to see him don the West Indies jersey one more time. "I am so happy for Sunil, to be honest," Russell said. "I think when GG (Gautam Gambhir) came back, he said that we needed him (Narine) to open the batting. Batting him at No. 9 or No. 10, we really had no use of him in the backend. Given the opportunity, he has taken it and he is doing a good job for us. Getting close to 500 runs and picking up 16 wickets is no joke. It just goes to show his true all-round capabilities. I am very, very happy for him."
Russell highlighted the impact Gambhir's strategic decisions had on Narine's performance. "GG giving him an opportunity as well, that’s a good decision for the team," he added.
When asked if Narine should play in the T20 World Cup as West Indies co-hosts the event, Russell was unequivocal. "I definitely think so," he said. "I was trying to get in his head before the squad was announced. For like two weeks straight, me and Rutherford kept talking to him and told him, ‘Hey, please, just for this World Cup, then you can retire, do whatever you want to do’. I think he has made a decision and I respect his decision as well."
Despite Narine's firm stance on his retirement, Russell's final plea underscores the respect and admiration his teammates have for him. "If he could change his decision, the whole West Indies will be happy," Russell concluded.
Earlier, West Indies captain and Rajasthan Royals batter Rovman Powell also attempted to persuade Narine to play in the World Cup, but his efforts were in vain. As the West Indies prepare to co-host the T20 World Cup, the absence of a player of Narine's calibre will undoubtedly be felt, but his legacy and contributions to the team remain indelible.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
