Ben Stokes’ sensational catch at the Oval helped put the spotlight on England’s fielding that has come to the boil at the perfect time.
The batting has long been a dynamic powerhouse while the bowling has had its moments and has now been taken to a new level by Jofra Archer.
Despite all the efforts of head coach Trevor Bayliss who is simply crazy about catching, the fielding has been up and down and everything in between for the last four years.
If there is one thing Bayliss cares about more than anything else it is fielding. It is the one area he takes a real hands on approach, drilling his players with catch after catch, and finally the hard work appears to be working.
“As a collective it was very good,” said Jason Roy, who dives around like a modern day Gordon Banks at point.
“And that was an incredible catch from Ben. We pride ourselves on our fielding and we have been disappointed quite a lot with our fielding over the last year.
“We’ve been incredible with the bat and ball but our fielding has sometimes let us down.
“The boys turned up this time and showed what we are about on the big stage and in the big game so we’re really proud.
“It all gets logged and the analyst told us it was our best ever fielding performance. The best ever recorded in the four year period.”
Roy was almost right. Understandably in the excitement of a performance like England’s against South Africa, there can be a little miscommunication.
Since the start of 2016, the fielding performances of every team in one day cricket have been logged in a system devised by England’s analyst Nathan Leamon.
The CricViz statistical team crunch the numbers and reveal just how each player and each team does in the field to give a run value to what they have saved.
At the Oval with two decent fielding teams on show, England were plus 35 while South Africa were plus 30, making a total of 65 runs saved in the match, the highest number recorded.
Only two teams have saved more runs than England’s 35, which was New Zealand in June 2017 with 36, and England again in 2018 when they saved a whopping 51 against the Kiwis.
“Absolutely there’s a buzz about it,” said Roy. “It is nice when you are fielding to Jof because he hits that back of a length and guys are looking to use his pace through my area so you know you are going to be in the game.
“It is good fun and you know your hands are going to be battered after the game, but we want to show off our skills.
“We practice for those moments. Stokesy practices for those moments like that catch and we all know our roles in the field so it is a case of showing what we can do.”
Roy showed what he could do with the bat too in scoring 54 having faced the first ball of the tournament from a spinner, and even though Jonny Bairstow fell first ball, he has dared other teams to do the same.
“Opening with a spinner maybe a tactic other teams use, but it does present a lot of boundary options,” he added.
“It was good fun and it got the attention going that’s for sure and got me in the mood. I think there are more boundary options against a spinner than a seamer though.”
