sport news PAUL NEWMAN: Redemption for Alex Hales as batsman goes from exile to England ... trends now
There was a fantastic bowling performance which restricted India to a total that, as it turned out, was well short of par. And there was leadership by example from Jos Buttler who indisputably emerged here as a captain of substance from the shadow of Eoin Morgan as England thrillingly and emphatically thrashed the Twenty20 World Cup favourites by 10 wickets.
But, above all, there was a match-winning display from a man who feared there would never again be days like this, a batter who, through his own mistakes, had been frozen out of an England team that enjoyed the glory of a fabled 50-over World Cup triumph in 2019.
Alex Hales was meant to be part of that historic day at Lord’s. He had played a big role in England’s renaissance from the dark white-ball days that culminated at this Adelaide Oval ground with humiliating elimination in the group stages of the 2015 World Cup.
Alex Hales showed his class after being brought back in from the cold for the tournament
Yet he was unceremoniously dumped from the England squad when it emerged on the eve of that 2019 tournament he had failed a second test for recreational drugs. On top of the misgivings England players held about Hales role in the brawl in Bristol that led to Ben Stokes facing criminal charges it was just too much for England captain Morgan to bear.
Make no mistake, Hales would not have been at this World Cup had Morgan still been in charge. There is no question about that. The breakdown in trust between the two men was irretrievable and it took the surprise retirement of Morgan last summer for Hales to be handed a glimmer of hope that all might not yet be lost.
Even then he failed to make this World Cup squad, angrily ringing managing director Rob Key to ask why when he was omitted on the very same day a freak accident to Jonny Bairstow opened the door for a replacement opener. Enter Hales even though his relationship with Stokes had clearly not been fully healed after the scars left by Bristol.
Opener smashed an unbeaten 86 off 47 balls as England thrashed India by 10 wickets
It would appear all is well between the two now, at least professionally, after Hales increasingly influential part in this World Cup culminated with Thursday’s utterly brilliant unbeaten 86 off 47 balls with no fewer than seven sixes.
Coupled with Buttler’s equally sublime unbeaten 80 it was enough for England to silence the vast majority of India fans in a 40,000 crowd and banish a star-studded India side who were simply too old-fashioned, too 2015 if you like, to
