ICC World Twenty20: Jason Roy ready for 'mind-blowing' final
Thursday 31 March 2016 22:03, UK
Jason Roy says England are preparing for the "mind-blowing experience" of a World Twenty20 final at Eden Gardens after their near-perfect game overwhelmed New Zealand in the last four.
Having come into their semi-final in Delhi as marginal underdogs, England produced their best cricket of the tournament to romp home by seven wickets with 17 balls to spare.
The death-bowling brilliance of Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes restricted the Black Caps to 153-7, having been 89-1 at the halfway stage, and opener Roy then smashed 78 off 44 balls to propel England towards their target.
And Roy, fresh from hitting 11 fours and two sixes, was already wide-eyed at the prospect of heading to Kolkata's famous stadium to battle West Indies for the trophy.
"I don't think the boys realise what they've achieved," he said. "It's the most mind-blowing experience of my life to date. I'm just super happy for the lads to get that experience on Sunday.
"It's pretty cool. Just another game of cricket... it just happens to be at Eden Gardens in the World Cup final, in front of 100,000 people," he said, though he overestimated the capacity of the venue - it is 66,000 these days.
Jordan and Stokes turned in combined figures of 4-50 in eight overs, half of which came at the back end of the innings.
The last four overs cost just 20 runs, with one boundary and five wickets, laying the platform for Roy's fireworks.
Joe Root (27no) and Jos Buttler (32no) also flexed their muscles at the close as England kept their foot on the pedal.
"Today was as good as it probably gets in winning a T20 game," said Roy.
"The bowlers were outstanding towards the end, their skill sets were amazing. The momentum that we carried over from the end of their innings to ours was outstanding. It was just perfect.
"The situation 'Rooty' came in to was perfect for him, a nice calm head, and he just finished it off with Jos, who has explosive power at the end."
Captain Eoin Morgan, the only survivor from England's World T20-winning side of 2010, knows exactly what it means to reach a showpiece final on the global stage.
"Making a final is the kind of thing you dream of as a kid," he said. "Everyone in the dressing room has worked tremendously hard and made a lot of sacrifices to put us in this position.
"A lot of things have gone our way and we have earned the right to play the way we do and hopefully it can be our day in the final."
Watch the final live on Sky Sports 2 on Sunday, with coverage from 1.30pm.
