England are basking in the afterglow of their ICC Cricket World Cup win. England have won the 50-overs World Cup for the first time in 44 years. The victory came with a bit of luck as England were declared winners after edging out New Zealand in the final on the basis of ‘boundary count’ after the match and Super Over ended in ties.
England’s Jofra Archer after the game revealed that ‘Player of the match’ Ben Stokes helped in boosting his confidence ahead of the nerve-shredding Super Over.
Archer was asked to defend 15 runs after Stokes and Jos Buttler swung as hard as they could against Trent Boult for six balls. And the English speedster revealed Stokes, also an IPL team-mate with Rajasthan Royals, was on hand to give him just the right words at the right time to help him get the job done.
“Stokesy came over and told me, win or lose, today will not define me as a player,” said Archer.
“He told me everyone believes in me and Rooty also came over and gave me some inspirational words. Stokesy told me that even if we lost it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but in saying that I’m really pleased we won.
“When it was over it was just pure passion that came out and I can’t imagine a better group of guys to win with.
“The boys did so well to give us 15, I am so grateful they gave us the opportunity to compete. I actually went to Morgs [captain Eoin Morgan] first to check that he wanted me to do it. I suppose that is why I’m in the team because of my death bowling skills and it was just meant to be.”
Stokes was there in the 2016 World T20 final bowling the last over before and it didn’t go well, so he was the perfect person to give Archer the benefit of his wisdom.
“He probably went through the same feeling when he bowled the last over and that is why he came over to me,” added Archer.
