Ben Stokes’s stardust and Jos Buttler’s quiet calm lift England to new heights

It had to be Ben Stokes, of course it did. In the recently-released Amazon Prime documentary, Phoenix from the Ashes, Joe Root explained that “the big moments find him.” At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, six years after a teary defeat in the T20 World Cup final against West Indies in Kolkata, a big moment found him again and, this time, he dragged England to another World Cup win, just as he had at Lord’s in 2019.

He didn’t do it alone, of course. England were clinical with the ball and in the field and in Sam Curran — player of the match and player of the tournament — and Adil Rashid they had two bowlers at the top of their game who held Pakistan