“I remember being out there thinking ‘Jos [Buttler] is going to win this for us in the next 15-20 minutes.’” 

That was the take of England all-rounder Ben Stokes while rewatching the 2019 Cricket World Cup final, the match in which his innings of 84 not out and runs in the super over helped defeat New Zealand.

Player-of-the-Match Stokes shared a 110-run fifth-wicket stand with Jos Buttler, and according to the former it was the latter who looked at one stage more likely to take England home.

As part of Sky Sports Cricket’s  ‘Sky Easter Watchalong’, with a host of England players sharing their thoughts as they rewatched last July’s final at Lord’s, both Stokes and Buttler revisited their memories of the partnership.

Stokes noted how he played “second fiddle” to Buttler, who brought up his half-century in the match from 53 balls, whereas Stokes reached the landmark from 81.

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“I know how Jos is going to play, so pretty much the whole partnership, I was playing second fiddle to Jos,” Stokes said. “Whilst I was out there I had to massively change how I was playing because it didn’t feel very fluent. Jos came out and was probably the only player who actually looked comfortable from ball one… You see Jos is scoring at a run a ball when no one else had managed to do it. I was playing second fiddle throughout this whole partnership.

“I remember him coming out and straight away hitting a few drives on the up, and I was like ‘I couldn’t even dream about doing that right now’. I’d be too worried about nicking it.”

Speaking moments before Buttler was to be dismissed in the match, Stokes added: “I remember being out there thinking ‘Jos is going to win this for us in the next 15-20 minutes’… I don’t know whether that’s what he was thinking, but that’s the vibe I got from actually being out there.

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Buttler added: “Spot on. I think if I watch this back, I probably suffer from a bit of overconfidence at this stage. [I’d] just hit a four and like Ben’s saying, I think I’m going to win the game for us here. And then actually feeling very confident that this is the time to… I also remember thinking about the guys we had behind us and trying to put some faith in them. I felt like one of us would have to take a couple of options at certain times, and one of the great strengths of the side is we bat deep.”

While Buttler fell for 59, Stokes helped take the match to a super over, and the pair joined forces again to take England to what would be a tournament-winning return of 15.