STOKES READY TO ROLL
Brakes off for Ben
BEN STOKES will be let loose on New Zealand today as England look to ramp up their Champions Trophy bid.
Skipper Eoin Morgan had been forced to handle the explosive allrounder with kid gloves, limiting the number of overs he has bowled.
But after Stokes came through his side’s first game with no reaction on his sore knee, Morgan has warned that the gloves are now off.
“Ben came through it again the other day, bowling more overs than we intended bowling him, but I think we are nearly there,” Morgan said.
“He has had no pain in five days now, so, if that continues, there is a chance he could bowl 10 overs.”
Humiliated
England will book their semi-final slot with a win in Cardiff today.
If they do beat the weather, they will have to perform much better than when they faced the same opponents in the 2015 World Cup.
They were humiliated on that day, as the home side won by eight wickets with 226 balls to spare.
Morgan said: “They were one of the favourites going in to the tournament and proved that against us in Wellington. It was sort of men against boys.
“But I think it’s completely different now.
“We’ve got a completely new team pretty much, and I think a lot of it is to do with confidence.
“You can only build confidence by producing performances and winning games of cricket. The dominant factor in New Zealand was that they had that confidence at the time, we didn’t.
“We come into this tournament full of confidence and knowing the conditions we’re going to play in.”
But Morgan said his side have not transformed the way they approach the 50-over game solely on their experiences that day.
“There are a number of teams that have (inspired us),” he said.
“If you look at the top four teams that got to the semi-final stage in that World Cup, all seemed to score regular totals of over 350 or 350 itself.
“So I think they’ve contributed to it as a whole. I think the way New Zealand went about playing their cricket was probably closer to the way we go about it.”
England’s one selection dilemma is deciding the man to replace the injured Chris Woakes, who bowled two overs in last week’s win over Bangladesh before leaving the field with a side strain.
David Willey is in pole position, with Steve Finn, who has taken Woakes’ place in the squad, pushing Jake Ball for a start after the Notts man proved expensive against Bangladesh.
“I’d have no hesitation in playing Finny,” said Morgan. “It will be a hard thing to do (to leapfrog those already in the squad).
“He has the quality to come in and make a huge impact but we have guys who can do that who are not playing at the moment.”