After our semi-final at Edgbaston Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss sat the lads down to celebrate beating Australia but also remind us not to get too over-excited. The message was to stay calm. It’s not over yet.
One of the beauties about Sunday’s final at Lord’s is that history will be made when a new team lift the trophy. And we know New Zealand are not to be taken lightly. Over the past four years they have arguably pushed us harder than any other side in the world and with players like Kane Williamson and Trent Boult, they have some serious quality in their ranks.
But after our performance at Edgbaston, confidence probably couldn’t be higher. We didn’t just beat Australia, we battered them. And I think we made an important statement about ourselves as a team, because after three defeats in the group stage when chasing, people had started to wonder if we had a weakness there.
This wasn’t the mentality inside the dressing room, I should add. Our record has been so strong in this department but it’s a bit of an English characteristic to suddenly get nervous about these things. That’s possibly a difference between the current generation and some of those in the past: in a big game, we didn’t let any of the wider negativity feed into our cricket.
I actually thought it was a good toss to lose and after Aaron Finch and David Warner were out early, the air was being punched in the dressing room. In my mind, that was already game over for them. And we didn’t relent, we just kept our foot on the gas, dominated and didn’t give them a sniff.
It was pretty sweet that my close friend Adil Rashid should break the brief resistance shown from Steve Smith and Alex Carey by forcing the latter into a mistake and then using his googly to snuff out Marcus Stoinis and Pat Cummins.
For my mind, people in the past have lazily written off Rash as a guy who doesn’t always enjoy the big stage. When you’re quiet, others can form opinions that are way off the mark. But in white-ball cricket he is a seriously determined match-winner who has learned his craft and has that knack of getting on a roll.
That’s why much of his tournament up to that point was down to the drops and a missed stumping off his bowling. He wasn’t getting the first wicket that leads to more. Morgan, as captain, plays a big part in backing Rash regardless of this. His googly is coming out really well now and for a lot of batsmen, he remains a mystery.
It was great to see him and Jofra Archer walking off the field at the innings break with an arm round each other. Jofra has fitted into this side so smoothly and, unless he needs a break after this tournament, he surely looks set to be in the Ashes squad too.
He will have got into Australian heads before that series, 100%. And from chatting to Chris Jordan, his Sussex teammate, the view is that red-ball cricket is his strongest suit. In the longest format you have to test quality players and in Jofra’s brief international career he has certainly done that.
No one wants to see batsmen get hurt but having the extra menace we saw when he hit Carey on the chin – or Hashim Amla earlier in the tournament – is bound to have sown some doubts. For me, it comes from the fact he jogs in and doesn’t jump at the crease, but rather runs through it and whistles it down at 90mph through that wrist snap.
It’s not just the pace either but the skills. That knuckle ball to get Glenn Maxwell is something he’s been working on only for the past few weeks but to deliver it at that moment was unbelievable. He bowls left-arm spin and leg-breaks in the nets too and thinks he’s amazing at it. My verdict on this little sideline? I’m not sold yet.
But the selectors will be delighted as they have some serious options for the Ashes right now. After Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad they also have Mark Wood and Chris Woakes too. In the past three games Woakes has hit a new level. He may sometimes go under the radar outside of the team but within it, we know he is a gun.
Jason Roy is another who will probably be on their radar. We know he can handle international cricket, he scores runs in four-day cricket during the brief times he plays it and to see him take down Australia and Mitchell Starc like he did makes him a batsman they won’t want to face again this summer.
The fact the first Ashes Test is at Edgbaston is something else in our favour. People talk about the Gabba in Brisbane and its effect on England players but Birmingham is this and more for Australia players these days. The atmosphere was intense on Thursday. And now we want to thank that crowd – and the huge amount of public support we have had so far in this tournament – by finishing off the job at Lord’s.