Hosts and pre-tournament favourites started their ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 with a rousing performance and beat South Africa by 104 runs in the tournament opener on Thursday at The Oval.
As many as four batsmen hit fifties, including a match-high 89 from Ben Stokes. The all-rounder then took two South African wickets besides taking a stunning catch to win the man of the match award.
Jofra Archer, who only qualified to play for England in March, was the stand-out bowler, taking three wickets. He also managed to rattle legendary Hashim Amla with a nasty bouncer.
Reactions
Eoin Morgan, England captain:
On the win - Delighted with the performance. It's more satisfying than normal. We were very good today, the wicket didn't allow us to execute our plan which is to try and score quite a considerable total, but I thought the maturity and smart cricket we played shows the effort we put in the last two years and the experience as well.
On Stokes performance - Extremely impressed. He had a field day and especially that catch he took was absolutely outstanding. To have a match-winner like that in the side, he is someone who lifts absolutely everybody and I thought the bowling unit really did get off to a great start and continued to learn from the first innings and then put into place in second innings.
On Archer's impact - Slowish pitch, he bowled fast and accurate and it's outstanding. He is taking everything in his stride at the moment and he is improving every day and that's very exciting. A huge amount of pleasure. It's an area we were always trying to improve on and certainly, we are looking for match-winning contributions in the field.
Faf du Plessis, South Africa captain:
On what went wrong - I think we have been outplayed in all three departments. Basically, we were 3 down in 12 overs and I think we were looking for 330-340 but when we took the pace off we thought 300 was par.
On Imran Tahir opening the bowling: It was a plan. We wanted to target those two openers with leg spin, especially Roy. It worked today.
On England's batting - Their batting was really good. They are a top-quality team and they showed that with the bat today.
On Hashim Amla condition - He is okay now and when he came back to the dressing room, he looked fine and hopefully that's a good sign for the next game. When we have Dale [Steyn] and all our resources, we back our bowling to restrict teams under 300.
Ben Stokes, man of the match:
On that catch - I was a little further in than I should have been. I panicked a bit I guess but it stuck. I shouldn't have been there and it was probably a regulation catch but I was in the wrong position.
On the pitch - The message from the batsmen in the middle was that it was a tricky pitch to bat on, so the aim was to get to 300-310. Maybe 330. I was looking to just pace it. The hard length was difficult and obviously, the slower balls and all. Towards the end, South Africa bowlers were really hard to get away.
On the importance of having 300+ total - I guess psychologically getting over the 300-run mark really helped. And then, our bowlers knew what to do and they executed well.
England play Pakistan next, on Monday; while South Africa take on Bangladesh a day earlier.
