<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Victory at Lord\u2019s tomorrow will give England a 3-1 win \u2013 a flag in the turf before these sides meet again to kickstart the World Cup in Ahmedabad on October 5.<\/p>\n
But when Stokes is in this mood, it may be better simply to enjoy the moment. And, having led England to an Ashes-squaring victory here in late July, he now gave a packed Oval its second treat of the summer.<\/p>\n
When Trent Boult reduced England to 13 for two \u2013 including the wicket of Jonny Bairstow, caught at square leg from the game\u2019s first ball \u2013 it was tempting to wonder whether the top order had chosen a bad moment to unravel.<\/p>\n
Jason Roy\u2019s plans for a first international appearance since March had already been ended by a back spasm. And because the World Cup 15 could be finalised as early as this weekend, he may yet make way for Harry Brook. England\u2019s Indian itinerary is heavy on internal flights, and Roy\u2019s bad back may be a risk they are unwilling to take.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Joe Root, meanwhile, had been bowled off the edge for four, leaving him with 10 runs in three innings and confirming the suspicion he has long been undercooked as a 50-over batsman. This was only his 18th ODI innings since England won the World Cup four years ago, in which time he has averaged 27, with a strike-rate of 78.<\/p>\n
But Malan, playing only because Roy was incapacitated, and Stokes glossed over concerns in a thumping stand of 199 inside 28 overs, ended only when Boult insisted on a review after Malan offered the faintest of leg-side tickles.<\/p>\n
By then, Stokes had already brought up his fourth ODI hundred, and first for six years. It had taken him 76 balls; his next 82 runs needed only 48. It hardly seemed to matter that he was intermittently flexing his left knee.<\/p>\n
He ended up hitting Lockie Ferguson, New Zealand\u2019s fastest bowler, for 10 fours alone, although he didn\u2019t clear the fence until he had reached 63. Then he cut loose, clouting spinners Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips for three sixes each, and treating The Oval like his personal playpen.<\/p>\n
Soon he was ticking off Roy\u2019s England-record 180 against Australia at Melbourne in 2017-18, thanks to a huge leg-side six off left-arm seamer Ben Lister. Two balls later, Stokes miscued a full toss to deep square. England await their first one-day double-hundred.<\/p>\n
Jos Buttler had thrashed 38 before he was caught slog-sweeping a delivery from Phillips that was perilously close to being a back-foot no-ball. But no one else passed 12 as Boult survived the carnage to take five for 51, and England\u2019s hopes of 400 vanished in a hurry.<\/p>\n
It proved academic. Woakes took three wickets in an exemplary eight-over opening spell, and Reece Topley pinned the dangerous Devon Conway.<\/p>\n
From 37 for four, there was no way back, especially after Sam Curran had Daryl Mitchell \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s best batsman while Kane Williamson continues his recovery from injury \u2013 caught behind on review for 17.<\/p>\n
Phillips made a fighting 72, but Stokes almost outscored New Zealand by himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
Share or comment on this article: <\/ad-slot><\/ad-slot><\/div>\nRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes reached the highest score in England’s one-day history He smashed 182 off 124 balls, hitting 24 boundaries in the process\u00a0 Dawid Malan also impressed, falling just four runs short of a century\u00a0\u00a0 By Lawrence Booth for MailOnline Published: 14:52 EDT, 13 September 2023 | Updated: 15:06 EDT, 13 September 2023 Ben Stokes would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,5265,765,23,11755,2137,5264,110,11754,8590,194,165,11753,11357],"acf":{"source_article":"","image_credit":""},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}