STOKES SPARKLES TO EDGE OUT KIWIS
IF, next year, England go on to win the World Cup they crave above almost everything else, they can look back on the day they beat New Zealand in front of a half-full rugby stadium in Wellington as a pivotal moment.
This thrilling, last-ball victory meant so much more to the tourists than simply another 50-over win to take a 2-1 lead in this five-match series.
It was the day they proved they can be so much more than a team of big hitters.
First, they showed an ability to adapt and battled to an impressive 234.
Only when Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes were together in a stand of 71 did England suggest anything like fluency on a two-paced surface full of uneven bounce and turn.
The curse of the ‘Cake Tin’, as this stadium is known, had seen England lose all four of their previous one-day internationals here.
It looked sure to strike again when New Zealand moved to 80 for one in reply. But then you-know-who intervened.
Nothing, it seems, can keep Stokes out of the limelight on his return to the team after a winter of discontent.
He flung himself to his left to take an outstanding catch to send back Colin Munro, who had lived dangerously for his 49. All of a sudden, England were back in the game.
Belief surged back as New Zealand lost five wickets for 23 runs in 42 balls. But there was to be another twist.
The third one-day international would have been all but over had Jason Roy been adjudged to have caught Mitchell Santner before he had scored — as he surely did.
However, another cricketing curse of the foreshortened TV images counted against Roy.
Chris Woakes kept his nerve when New Zealand needed five off the last two balls by not conceding another run.
Morgan admitted: ‘We’re not known as a side that wins games on pitches like that. We’ve lost plenty. We had to find our way to a competitive total and then we were always in the game.
‘Our bowlers did well. They were miserly and aggressive.’