LONDON, Sep 13: Ben Stokes made the highest score by an England player in One-Day Internationals by clubbing 182 off 124 balls as his team amassed 368 all out against New Zealand in the third match of the series at The Oval on Wednesday.
Stokes beat the previous best mark by an England player — 180 by Jason Roy against Australia in Melbourne in 2018 — and posted the 24th highest individual score ever in the 50-over format, with his innings including nine sixes and 15 fours.
It underlined why England was so keen to get Stokes out of ODI retirement ahead of the team’s defense of the ICC Cricket World Cup title in India starting next month.
England was 13-2 after 16 balls following Trent Boult’s dismissals of Jonny Bairstow (0) — off the first ball of the innings — and Joe Root (4), but Stokes and Dawid Malan (96 off 95 balls) put on a 199-run stand for the third wicket in sending New Zealand’s bowlers to all corners of the ground.
Malan came up just short of his fifth ODI century when he was caught behind off Boult after Stokes had reached his fourth hundred in 93 innings. He surpassed his previous best ODI knock of 102.
Stokes’ eventual dismissal, caught by Will Young at square leg off a full toss from pacer Ben Lister, precipitated a collapse by England from 348-5 to being all out 22 balls later for the addition of just 20 runs. Boult had impressive figures of 5-51. The series is tied at 1-1. Roy missed out again for England after having another back spasm hours before the match. The opener missed the first two games with the same problem and could now be a doubt for the World Cup starting in three weeks.
Harry Brook, who is pushing to replace Roy or another batter in the World Cup squad, dropped out of the team to accommodate the return of Malan, who missed the second ODI after his wife gave birth to their son on Saturday.
New Zealand left out spinner Mitchell Santner after he jarred his knee fielding in the second ODI, which England won by 79 runs to square the four-match series that ends at Lord’s on Friday. (AP)
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