Who’s the bowler of the tournament? ‘Mohammed Shami’! That’s what Ben Stokes had to say. Did nine balls in Lucknow bother Stokes to the core? Did Stokes ever prepare his game for Shami? Well, Shami is breathing fire and his 14-wicket count off three World Cup matches are a testimony to the fact. But, what impressed the England all-rounder the most about Shami?
Nine balls, just nine balls in one World Cup match? Perhaps, not!
“I’ve played a lot of cricket against Shami, he’s a fantastic bowler and I think we watched him last night (against Sri Lanka) and they brought a stat up in a World Cup is quite phenomenal actually. He’s obviously been the bowler of the World Cup, I think,” said Stokes.
ICC World Cup: Schedule | Results | Points Table | Most Runs | Most Wickets
Stokes and Shami have known each other for long, have played numerous matches against each other and have read each other’s playing style well. So, what made it different? Approach and mindset.
From 30-0 to 33-2, England derailed in Lucknow and Stokes felt the pressure. Shami read it well and just played with Stokes’ mind and got a wicket without deviating much from his good length balls. The ball that trapped Stokes was full and straight – nearly similar to the ones that he bowled earlier. This concludes that what bowled Stokes was ‘frustration’.
From a wider lens, a 10-ball duck for the England all-rounder wasn’t merely a story about Shami’s excellence and Stokes’ annoyance. It was a chapter of England’s collective failure in this ODI tournament and Shami’s beauty and brilliance with the ball.
From Dharamsala to Mumbai, India’s victories have come at the backdrop of Shami’s excellence and Stokes couldn’t control himself from praising the Indian pacer for his excellence.
“I don’t think he’s played every game but the way in which he’s, in every situation and every game he’s come in it’s been incredible the amount of wickets he’s taken. He’s just found a way to be able to get wicket[s]. Obviously that spell against us was one of many he’s had this World Cup. Sometimes you just say to the opposition that you’re very good and Mohammed Shami’s been very good throughout this whole World Cup,” said Stokes.
2 Cs – Champions and Crap!
England are virtually out of the World Cup and now the only thing left to ask is – what all has changed for England from 2019 to 2023? ‘Performances and results,’ said Stokes.
He stated, “I think the problem is that we’ve been crap. To be honest with you, we’ve been crap. Everything we’ve tried throughout this World Cup, through trying to put pressure back onto the opposition in a way in which we know, or trying to soak up the pressure in a different way, which we know we’ve done before and been successful with, it’s just not worked.”
In the six games so far in the tournament, England have lost five. Stokes, who came back from the ODI retirement for the World Cup has now made peace with the fact that their performances have been disastrous.
“We’ve had a disastrous World Cup and there’s no point sugarcoating that because it’s the truth. But we know these last three games, for us, we’ve got a lot to play for. I think the biggest thing that we’ve got to play for is obviously the pride of what it is to put the three lines on your chest, walking out onto the field every time is a very special occasion and something that we value very highly.
I know there’ll be a lot of noise around England, Australia in the next game, but regardless of who we play against, the feeling of putting that shirt on is something that we take very seriously,” said Stokes.
Now only one thing that can fix their issues and can work as an ointment over their poor show wounds is – WIN OVER AUSTRALIA.
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