England limited overs captain Eoin Morgan has revealed why he selected Jofra Archer to bowl in the World Cup final Super Over against New Zealand. England, who batted first in the Super Over, scored 15 runs and Archer was asked to defend it by his captain. Morgan revealed that he picked Archer because he can handle the pressure in the death overs.
Subsequently, Archer conceded 15 runs in the Super Over and it also ended in a tie just like the match. As England had scored 26 boundaries as compared to New Zealand’s 17, the hosts were declared as winners of the World Cup for the first time.
Archer is known to hit the blockhole consistently and he has the pace under his belt. The right-arm pacer can also bowl accurate bouncers and it is not easy to score runs against him. In fact, Archer was smashed for a six by James Neesham on the second ball of the super over but the lanky pacer was able to recover soon.
In New Zealand batting innings, Jofra Archer had bowled a tight spell as he had conceded 42 runs in the 10 overs and also picked up a wicket. Hence, he was an automatic choice for Eoin Morgan in the Super Over after Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler scored 15 runs.
Morgan added that Archer had given his best in the crunch situation despite not having a lot of experience under his belt.
“I think the obvious answer to choosing Jofra to bowl the super over is that he is one of the best death bowlers in the world. Guys are exposed to perform under high-pressure situations and Jofra has proved at the IPL, Big Bash that he can deliver under pressure,” Morgan said during the interaction with Ian Bishop and Nasser Hussain on ICC podcast CWC Rewind.
“He had played only a dozen of ODI games at that stage, every challenge he had come under, he had thrived to perform in such situations,” he added.
On the other hand, Morgan also revealed why he picked Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler to bat in the super over. Both Stokes and Buttler were England’s best batsman and the leading run-scorers of their innings. Stokes had scored 84 whereas Buttler had scored 59 runs. Both of these batsmen had added 110 runs and helped England recover in their innings.
“The last couple of balls in the 50-over action, me and Trevor had discussed as to what we will do if the match goes to super over. The wicket was so hard to middle the ball for the batsmen, so we thought Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes were the best batsmen to send to the middle,” Morgan said.
It was a final for the ages and England had the rub of the green on their side as they had scored more boundaries.
