Jason Roy reveals how England's win over India changed their fortunes in World Cup 2019

Jason Roy revealed that England's win against India during their crucial World Cup 2019 match at Birmingham turned out to be the turning point of the hosts' campaign. The pre-tournament favorites did not have a good campaign until that point. Even though they had comprehensively beaten South Africa in the curtain-raiser, they lost their very next match against Pakistan and despite registering a couple of wins against the likes of West Indies, Afghanistan, etc., the eventual champions suffered a shocking loss against Sri Lanka that was followed by a huge loss against the then reigning world champions Australia. 

Therefore, the match against India was a must-win clash for them as a loss would have brought curtains down on their campaign and Pakistan would have progressed to the semi-finals due to a superior net run-rate.

'That brought life back into the team': Jason Roy

“That brought life back into the team a little bit. We had our full team back, we won that game and everyone got to relax a little bit, we started playing the way we normally play. That was a weird moment as everyone had to come together, attended team meetings where we discussed our fears. That’s when we played our best cricket,” said Jason Roy while speaking to  CricTracker.

“In a lot of series, we lost the opening matches. We tried to be as aggressive and positive as we could. And that starts in the morning when we had breakfast and turn up to the ground. And we ended up playing some incredible cricket again. After we won, we realised that’s how we should play,” the English opening batsman added.

When England's WC campaign came back to life

English skipper Eoin Morgan won a vital toss and elected to bat first. His decision was spot on as openers Jason Roy (66) and Jonny Bairstow (111) added 160 runs for the first wicket on a great batting surface where the bowlers had no assistance whatsoever. A great cameo from star all-rounder Ben Stokes (54-ball 79) in the middle-order ensured that the hosts posted a huge total of 337/7 in their 50 overs.

In reply, the Indian run chase got off to a bad start. Rohit Sharma got a reprieve when he was dropped at first slip in the very first over bowled by Chris Woakes that was a maiden. However, KL Rahul was not that lucky as he perished a couple of overs later by giving a return catch to Woakes. Rohit and skipper Kohli then rebuilt the Indian innings with a 138-run stand for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed. 

Rohit anchored the innings and notched up a brilliant century which was his third one of that tournament. However, when the 'Hitman' was caught behind by Bairstow off Woakes for 102, the supporting cast of Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and, Kedar Jadhav could hardly offer any resistance as India were restricted to 306/5 in their quota of 50 overs and thereby, suffered their first loss of the competition. 

Meanwhile, England won the do-or-die contest by 31 runs to keep their hopes alive and the rest, as they say, is history as the hosts lifted their maiden World Cup trophy a couple of weeks later. 

(Image Courtesy: AP)

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