The Scotsman

Jordan believes England emerged stronger from T20 World Cup final loss

- By RORY DOLLARD

Chris Jordan is convinced England's heartbreak­ing defeat in the last T20 World Cup final helped them become a calmer, wiser side as they try to recapture the trophy five years later.

When Jordan delivered the penultimat­e over of the 2016 tournament at Eden Gardens, it looked to have all-but sealed a second T20 World Cup triumph for Eoin Morgan's men.

The West Indies needed 27 runs off the last 12 balls and Jordan held his nerve to cough up just eight from his six deliveries. What happened next is for the history books, with Carlos Brathwaite launching Ben Stokes for four consecutiv­e sixes to seal a dramatic victory against the odds. Stokes remains on an indefinite break from the game but seven of the shellshock­ed England XI from that night in Kolkata are part of the squad that will open their 2021 campaign against the Windies on October 23 and their previous meeting in the competitio­n is sure to loom large over proceeding­s.

Jordan, recalling events from the team's training base in Oman, said: "I bowled my last over under what was quite immense pressure and when I bowled a dot ball on that final ball, it definitely did feel a lot closer than it ended up.

"That's part of the learning, part of having that experience, because having that feeling after that ball... I'll never take myself to that place ever again. I definitely won't be thinking that way after bowling the 19th over until it's fully, fully over.

"It's funny, we tend to have a laugh about it now. But we definitely came out stronger for it as a unit and as a team.

"I wouldn't say it really haunted us too much, that's part of sport, that's part of life. Someone has to come up victorious and for something like that to be done in the last over, you can't really write that."

 ?? ?? 0 Chris Jordan: Bowled the penultimat­e over of 2016 final
0 Chris Jordan: Bowled the penultimat­e over of 2016 final

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