Eoin Morgan hails Chris Woakes after his incredible final over

England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan lauded Chris Woakes for his brilliant comeback in the last over which helped the visitors salvage some pride and keep India’s scoreline down to 2-1. Ben Stokes was the standout performer for the visitors with both bat and the ball. While he scored a quickfire half-century, he also snared 3 crucial wickets, the most important being of India’s captain Virat Kohli.

With 16 runs needed off the last over, “The Pocket-sized dynamite” Kedar Jadhav smashed Woakes for a six and a four in the first two deliveries of the over through the extra cover region. But Woakes came back strongly and bowled four consecutive dot balls to hand England their first win on this tour.

He bowled two terrific Yorkers in the 3rd and 4th delivery of the over and eventually dismissed Jadhav in the 5th ball of the over to silence the Eden crowd. Bhuvneshwar Kumar faced the last ball and though it was a length ball and in the range to hit, the medium-pacer missed it altogether that gave England a thrilling 5 runs victory.

“It was brilliant, even with the pressure when the first two balls went for boundaries,” Morgan was quoted as saying by the Wisden India. “He managed to get the set broke out and we’re right back into the game. They still needed six off four balls. So a couple of good yorkers, a couple of singles, we were still favourites to win. Thankfully, the man at the boundary (Sam Billings) managed to get rid of him and I thought it was going to take something special to get them across the line with two new batsmen. Credit to Woakes, he was there until the end.”

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Further praising Chris Woakes who has performed very well off late especially in Tests and ODIs, Morgan said, “He’s been incredible in all forms for the last two years. Probably not so much in T20, but in 50 overs and Tests, he has had an incredible two years,” said Morgan. “People could be giving him stick for not bowling fast enough, saying he can’t bowl in Test matches because he’s not fast enough, but he has been relentless. How he has worked and the results that have shown through have been outstanding. People say he doesn’t get much acknowledgement but he certainly does in our group because we appreciate him for what he is.”

While Woakes held his nerve and bowled a terrific last four balls of the match, it was the combined efforts from the batsmen which helped the visitors post a competitive 321 on the board at the end of their 50 overs. Despite being beaten by the Indian pacers in almost every over, Openers Jason Roy and Sam Billings who replaced the injured Alex Hales stitched together a valuable 98 runs stand opening stand which laid the foundation for a big English total. Yet again Roy failed to capitalise on his tremendous start and was dismissed on 65.

Jonny Bairstow who replaced Joe Root in the middle order made his opportunity count and stroked his way to a fluent half-century. Ben Stokes was the one who added late impetus to the innings with his lusty blows and remained unbeaten on 57 of a mere 39 deliveries which included 4 fours and a couple of sixes. Morgan was particularly pleased with the way Roy and Billings stitched together a crucial opening partnership despite being beaten several times.

“For a bunch of sloggers, we did well,” said Morgan. “The guys at the top of the order, Roy and Sam, they were beaten a lot in the first ten overs, and we weren’t sure what a good score would be, but I think after ten overs down we were 47 or 57 (England were 43). It was a great start, they held their nerve, backed their strengths, things that we do as a batting unit, and it set up the innings really well for us.”

Also read: Sometimes you need to give openers games to get back in form: Virat Kohli

Eden Gardens was the same venue where Stokes was humiliated in the World T20I final when he was smashed for four consecutive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite to help the Caribbeans win the title for the 2nd time around. Morgan said that he was pretty happy with the way the bowling line-up stepped up but also revealed that there was nothing to do with the World T20 experience for not giving the last over to Stokes.

“I was actually thinking of giving him two in a row and bowling him out because he bowled a great over and got the wicket of (Hardik) Pandya,” said Morgan. “The bowlers made everything we did today look really good. It was great to see them bowl today and, compared to the first two games, there was a lot of improvement which is very important. On top of a win, particularly given how damp it was, how wet the ball was, and playing against a strong side, I think it holds a lot of weight,” Morgan concluded.