If you love close cricket games this was one for you. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat on a green deck at the home of cricket at Lords. New Zealand had a slow start with the ball moving around for their entire inning.
It was a tense start with the third umpire busy at the start of the game, but Henry Nicholas steps up with a crucial 55 off 77 balls and was unstuck by Liam Plunkett. Tom Latham also made a crucial 47 off 56 balls which help New Zealand to a total of 241 which seem not enough but this is a world cup final so anything was possible.
England start to the chase was quite tense with New Zealand having multiple chances with Bolt could have a first ball wicket but was denied by the umpire call by the DRS system. But a wicket came around the corner with Jason Roy was undone by a Mat Henry and was snapped up Tom Latham.
Then Colin De Grandhoume could have John Bastriow out for a duck but drop him but he only made 36 but if he sticks that New Zealand might have won. England was in trouble at one stage with being 4 for 96 with Joe Root and the captain Eoin Morgan back in the sheds but the New Zealand born Ben Stokes and the South African born Jos Bulter step up and made a crucial partnership of 110 in the final. When Jos Bulter went out the game was back in New Zealand favour but Ben Stokes step up and was so close. The final over made the Australian vs South Africa 1999 world cup semi-final look less tense with craziest scenes.
England needed 15 off the last over and Ben Stokes hit a six that was caught on the boundary but Trent Boult step on the boundary went for six then the weirdest thing that could happen, Ben Stokes, hit a ball out to backward point and they run two and then poor Mitch Santer threw ball and as Ben Stokes made his ground the ball deflected off the bat and roll to the fine leg boundary.
Ben Stokes was apologetic and the umpires came to converse about what just happened at the home of cricket. England ties the game and could run the second but was too hard and mark wood was run out.
So we went to a super over which was a first in world cup ODI cricket. England hit 15 off 6 balls with Ben Stokes fatigue and tried off his amazing innings of 84 had to bat again with Jos Bulter. New Zealand needed 16 off the over to win if there was a tie England would win because hit more boundaries. Jofra Archer was quite nervous and started with a wide and then Jimmy Neesham step up and hit two big boundaries which may it look certain that New Zealand would finally break the drought but Archer had other ideas and bowl a key short ball. Then the final ball and was brilliance piece of fielding ad Jos Bulter did the rest and poor Martin Guptill was run out.
The super over was a tie. England won the world cup by the most boundaries this included the super over this is only international cricket match decided by this decision. This cause social media to go into meltdown with many cricket legends such as Scott Styris “Nice work @ICC … you are a joke!!!” and Dean Jones making his frustration clear by stating ” The DL system is actually based on runs and wickets lost… yet the Final result is only based on Boundaries hit? Not fair in my opinion. Must have been great to watch!”.
Kane Williamson receive player of tournament which is a consolidate prize in the context of the final.
No matter who you went for this is arguably the greatest world cup final and maybe the best of game cricket of the decade.
Paddy Sport's News 