LET’S MAKE HISTORY
Stokes demands England go and win World Cup for the first time tomorrow
BEN STOKES wants England to make history with a World Cup win at Lord’s tomorrow.
Eoin Morgan’s side take on New Zealand and Stokes warned just getting to the final is not enough.
He said: “We’ve done very well to get to the final and that is something to be proud of.
“But we haven’t put all the hard work and effort in just to get to a final, we’re here to win it.”
England’s attempt to lift the trophy for the first time is being shown live on freeto-air TV on Channel 4 and Stokes said:
“We’re now in a place where we can make history.”
GETTING ready to play in a World Cup final is exactly where this squad of England players hoped and expected to be.
I don’t mean that to sound arrogant and I’m sure other teams felt the same way, but there is a lot of belief in the squad that we are capable of special things and you need to get into finals in order to achieve them.
We’re delighted to get here, but we would have been devastated if we hadn’t managed to get to this point.
We have worked so hard over the last four years and shown time and again how good we can be so we knew this is where we needed to get to.
We’ve done very well to get to the final and that is something to be proud of, but we haven’t put all the hard work and effort in that we have just to get to a final, we’re here to win it.
It has been 27 years since England got to a final and I did think, ‘Wow, it has been that long,’ I was only one when that happened and my agent Neil Fairbrother was playing in that game!
We’re in a place where we can make history. No England team has won a 50-over World Cup before so it would be incredible to be a part of the side that does it.
Getting past Australia to reach the final was a great moment too. The Aussies don’t give you a free pass to anywhere so we had to earn it, but we did it emphatically.
The whole day I was full of nerves. I was up and about at 6.30am before the semi-final and I can’t remember the last time I was up that early before a game.
It was obviously a comfortable win, but it didn’t feel that way during the game until quite near the end. I don’t know if it is just me, but you always fear the worst even when you’re right on top.
Even when we needed 70 to win and the boys were going so well I was thinking, ‘Well, Mitchell Starc could come on and bowl four perfect yorkers and we’re under the pump.’
Those are just the emotions you go through in a high-pressure game, and it wasn’t until we needed less than 20 to win that the mood in the changing room started to change.
When the winning runs were hit it was just an awesome moment and the dressing room was such a happy place to be.
We had about half an hour in there as a squad with the backroom staff which was a special time for us and then we had all the families join us for a bit of a celebration.
That was great because we got to share one of the happiest moments of our careers with the people who help us achieve our goals, and who are our biggest supporters.
We now face New Zealand tomorrow and I suppose for my mum and dad and my Kiwi family it is a win-win final!
New Zealand are a cracking side and I love playing against them, not just because of the family connection but because of the way they play their cricket and the way they approach the game. They’re a great set of lads, but they are fiercely determined and competitive with some truly world-class players.
We know we will be up against it, but if we bring the goods in the way we have over the last three games then we can make life very uncomfortable for them.
We just need to make sure we keep focused and don’t get too carried away by the excitement that a World Cup final can bring.
Despite the inevitable butterflies, I’ll get a good night’s sleep and then once I’m up I will just trust myself to perform the way I have over the last few years.
Hopefully I can influence an England win – that’s what it has all been about.