Ben Stokes says partnership with Eoin Morgan displayed England's attacking approach

In what was a must-win game for Australia, they were sent back home after a terrific bowling display by the Englishmen followed by a 150-run partnership stitched by Ben Stokes and England skipper Eoin Morgan which was the main reason for their rain-affected 40-run win over their Ashes rivals.

Rain had held up play for over 40 minutes and the Australian bowlers had reduced the English batting line up to 35 for 3. Ben Stokes, however, saw this occasion as one to register his 3rd ODI century, and his first in the Champions Trophy. Though, Morgan fell 13 short of a century, the damage had already been done for Australia.

“There was always pressure. But the fear thing – we don’t think about too much,” Stokes told ICC after the game in an interview.

“Me and Morgy (Morgan) both talked about the fact that the ball wasn’t swinging and there was just a bit of sideways movement off the deck. So we just had to try and play every ball on its merit and then once you get in on good wickets and face a few balls, it gets a lot easier. It just sums up our team at the moment and the way we’re moving forward with our positive intent and we always want to be on the front foot.”

On England’s fearless approach

He emphasized that the 159-run partnership was not an attacking one particularly built to suit the situation but a display of their fearless, aggressive approach in limited overs cricket. The side boasts of an in-depth batting line-up and majorly all batsman except Joe Root have the reputation of attacking ones, and Stokes took pride in expressing the approach they have adopted over the years.

“I don’t think it was a counter-attack,” he said. “It’s just our natural way in the middle order. We always look to take the positive option whether in attack or defence.”

“It was just our natural way,” said Stokes. “We don’t make a conscious effort on that (targeting bowlers) unless we feel the need to. We just keep playing, we know that our natural attacking positive instinct is probably going to take over.”

On his thoughts while batting

Stokes innings consisted of 13 fours and two sixes, but the rain interruptions in the game meant that he had to be cautious in his approach and keep evaluating the target every other over. On building the innings from scratch after the unwanted intervals, he also explained the strategies he planned while chasing.

“When you’re out there in chases, the biggest thing that you need to come over is the adrenaline that you feel,” he explained. “I actually had to sort of start again at certain stages. I looked up at the board and saw we needed 100 to win and I thought I was getting a bit too far ahead of myself. I thought if I got out playing a silly shot, it’ll put some pressure on the guys coming after me. I just try and concentrate on the run rate on what we need, try and take over from there and make sure we get that and put bad balls away,” as reported by India Today.

No extra pressure of the “favourites” tag 

England were adjudged favourites before the start of the tournament, more so because of their familiarity with the conditions. Though they have lived up to the reputation and have been the only team to sail through the group-stages unbeaten after convincing wins in all three games, Stokes did not seem overconfident about the side’s progress hinting that a lot is yet to come in the remaining games.

“We know we’re going well as a team and we’ve got potential. But we have two big games ahead of us,” he concluded.