Swaggering England are primed for another day of triumph
Hales and Co have all-round game to tame Cornered Tigers and unite white-ball trophies
So, it’s the Cornered Tigers against the Three Lions who have rediscovered their roar just in time for tomorrow’s final of this Twenty20 World Cup.
And what a roar it was from England in Adelaide against India, one that reverberated around the cricketing world and which would have been heard loud and clear by Pakistan.
England had barely caught their breath after that seismic semi-final before they were off to Melbourne for a rematch, 30 years on, from Imran Khan’s finest hour in lifting the 50-over World Cup for Pakistan at the MCG.
A smiling Alex Hales was asked in the aftermath of his extraordinary match- winning innings against a stunned India how much he knew about the first World Cup tournament played in coloured clothes, in 1992.
‘I was three years old, so not much,’ said Hales, who has thoroughly justified his recall here after more than three years in the international wilderness.
Pakistan won, he was told. ‘Well, hopefully we can reverse that then,’ he replied.
England surely will win, weather permitting, if Hales and Jos Buttler bat anywhere near as well as in that performance for the ages at the Adelaide oval — a display of mind-boggling hitting that was special even by England’s modern standards.
For Hales, his unbeaten 86 off 47 balls was surely his redemption song, the moment when threeand-a-half years of frustration in exile, admittedly mostly of his own making, was taken out on a shellshocked India.
Not that he was in any mood yesterday to revisit his feelings over that dumping by Eoin Morgan and England’s senior players after details emerged of a second failed drugs test, one misdemeanour too many for a player who seems to have been followed around by trouble.
‘I don’t think so,’ insisted Hales when asked if he was thinking about missing England’s fabled 2019 World Cup triumph when he was smashing India to all parts of Adelaide.
‘That’s not what’s on my mind when I’m out in the middle. I’m just playing with a smile on my face in an England shirt again and if I can leave with a World Cup winner’s medal it would be very special.
‘I don’t play the game to think of redemption or stuff like that.’
Maybe so, but all involved in
Hales’s recall — one that looked as if it would never happen when he was initially left out of England’s squad — deserve credit for drawing a line under his absence once Jonny Bairstow had slipped on a golf course and broken his leg.
Coach Matthew Mott admitted yesterday it was a gamble to bring back Hales, particularly as it quickly became clear he had barely rebuilt his bridges with Ben Stokes after their joint involvement in the incident in Bristol which could have ended both their careers.
‘I know Jos rang around a few people and consulted them,’ said the man who could become the second Australian after Trevor Bayliss to coach England to World Cup glory. ‘I certainly rang Trevor about how he thought Alex would fit back in the side and he gave him a glowing review. So for us it was just about him coming back and performing.
‘From the moment he’s returned to the squad he’s just been himself and relaxed. He’s playing a lot of golf which has been good for him. He’s been great to have around.’
Now comes the moment when England could become the first side to unite the 50-over and T20 world titles — as long as a tournament that has been synonymous with bad weather and unpredictable cricket does not reach a soggy anti-climax.
The forecast for Melbourne tomorrow has been dreadful all week. But it is improving and there should be enough time, at least over two days, for the 10 overs a side that will be needed to constitute a result in the final. As an added precaution, the ICC have extended the hours for Monday’s reserve day and will restart the final at 3pm local time if it is impossible to get a game in tomorrow.
It can only be hoped it does not come to that because England’s moment appears to have come, just as it did when, like here, they needed to win all of their last four games in the 2019 World Cup to win the tournament.
They have won three of them here now and, even though they look sure to be without the injured Mark Wood and Dawid Malan again tomorrow, they are hot favourites to add that all-important fourth.
‘Whenever you come into a group it can take time to build relationships,’ said Mott, who endured a difficult first summer as white-ball coach. ‘But even when we were struggling there was a camaraderie in the group and the players looked out for each other.
‘I think the team had lost a little bit of its mojo and a little bit of swagger, which can happen when you have changes of leadership.
‘Now we are back to where we want to be. The team are trusting each other’s games, as you saw in Adelaide, so we will go into this final really confident. But we know we’re playing a good Pakistan team who are on a run so we won’t take anything for granted.’
This has to be England and Alex Hales’s time. He will surely leave, if a full game is possible, with that winner’s medal and finally make up for the bad times that almost engulfed him.