I am loving pressure of Twenty20, insists Ben

AS England go in search of a performance complete enough to see off New Zealand in tomorrow’s World Twenty20 semi-final in Delhi, they could do worse than dissect Ben Stokes’s contribution to the win over Sri Lanka. Stokes’s statistics in this tournament are, at first glance, nothing to trouble the scorers. His 43 runs have come at an average of 14, his single wicket at a cost of 112. He is conceding more than nine an over. But it is the quality and timing of his interventions that stand out. And Twenty20 cricket is about nothing if not perfect timing. On Saturday, Stokes faced only one delivery, the last of the England innings, and duly swatted Thisara Perera over cow corner for six. Since the previous five balls had cost only four, it was a stroke that changed the mood of the final over and, perhaps, the mood of the mid-innings interval. Stokes (pictured) then ran out Lahiru Thirimanne to reduce the Sri Lankans to 15 for 4, before holding on to the destructive Chamara Kapugedera at deep backward square, a perilously high catch that demanded both technique and nerve, to end a stand of 80 with Angelo Mathews. Finally, with Mathews needing 15 off the last over to deny England a place in the semi finals, Stokes limited him to four. It captured the need to seize every little moment. Against New Zealand, the only remaining unbeaten team in the tournament, there are likely to be many such moments. ‘I just love being involved in the high-pressure situations,’ said Stokes. ‘It probably brings the best out of me. ‘Hopefully we don’t get it down that tight again, especially after the start we got. But I’d rather be the man doing it — it’s a lot easier on the nerves. It sounds silly to say, but I’m not very good watching in tight situations like that. ‘Over the last year and a half we have focused a lot on the end-of-innings stuff because we know it can win a lot of games,’ said Stokes. ‘It’s one of the areas we are confident with if it gets into a tight game.’