Spirited England surprise many
From Pragya Tiwari, New Delhi: April 1, 2016, DHNS
Cricket World T20
Few had given England chance to make it to the final of World Twenty20 and Jason Roy, whose destructive innings blew out favourites New Zealand, was thrilled to prove their critics wrong.
New Zealand were cruising in the first 10 overs at 89/1 before being kept down to 153. Roy then played a whirlwind innings (78 off 44 balls), opening with four boundaries, and by the time he left England needed nearly a run a ball 44 runs to win.
"We're that sort of a side. We've had a lot of negative feedback from a few people and to be in a World Cup final now has hopefully got a few people on our side. There's been a huge amount of support all tournament from back home and around the world so thanks to all those people."
Roy conceded the plan was to go after the New Zealand bowling.
"You kind of want to give yourself a chance. But when you get off to a good start like that you kind of just want to keep going, and I did. I got a bit of luck and got a few boundaries, hit a few gaps. The next minute I was there and next minute I was out. Yeah it was an idea to go out there and smash every ball to be honest. Sometimes you go out there and struggle your first 10 balls and don't hit a boundary,” said Roy, who had smashed his maiden T20 international fifty.
"That's pretty special for me, to get this group of boys to a final. Obviously it wasn't just me - the bowlers were outstanding towards the end, their skill sets were amazing. I'm just hugely proud to be involved." England have been on a roll following their opening round loss to West Indies and Roy couldn’t wait to be in the final.
"The momentum that we carried over from the end of their innings to ours was outstanding. They've grown in confidence from the Sri Lanka performance. It was just perfect,” he said.
"We're getting better with every game. It's just another game of cricket. It just happens to be at Eden Gardens in the World Cup final in front of 100,000 people. It's going to be an incredible experience but we're going to go out there and play our natural way and play the brand of cricket we've played for the last year or so."
New Zealand were cruising in the first 10 overs at 89/1 before being kept down to 153. Roy then played a whirlwind innings (78 off 44 balls), opening with four boundaries, and by the time he left England needed nearly a run a ball 44 runs to win.
"We're that sort of a side. We've had a lot of negative feedback from a few people and to be in a World Cup final now has hopefully got a few people on our side. There's been a huge amount of support all tournament from back home and around the world so thanks to all those people."
Roy conceded the plan was to go after the New Zealand bowling.
"You kind of want to give yourself a chance. But when you get off to a good start like that you kind of just want to keep going, and I did. I got a bit of luck and got a few boundaries, hit a few gaps. The next minute I was there and next minute I was out. Yeah it was an idea to go out there and smash every ball to be honest. Sometimes you go out there and struggle your first 10 balls and don't hit a boundary,” said Roy, who had smashed his maiden T20 international fifty.
"That's pretty special for me, to get this group of boys to a final. Obviously it wasn't just me - the bowlers were outstanding towards the end, their skill sets were amazing. I'm just hugely proud to be involved." England have been on a roll following their opening round loss to West Indies and Roy couldn’t wait to be in the final.
"The momentum that we carried over from the end of their innings to ours was outstanding. They've grown in confidence from the Sri Lanka performance. It was just perfect,” he said.
"We're getting better with every game. It's just another game of cricket. It just happens to be at Eden Gardens in the World Cup final in front of 100,000 people. It's going to be an incredible experience but we're going to go out there and play our natural way and play the brand of cricket we've played for the last year or so."
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