A fantastic final

K DATTA

England's Eoin Morgan and team mates celebrate winning the world cup with the trophy The six-week celebration of cricket this English summer ended with a memorable World Cup final which ended with a tie at Lord’s, with both contesting teams, New Zealand and England, scoring 241 runs.
Tied results in cricket are rare happenings. But this one at Lord’s on Sunday, July 14, played on a day when tennis greats Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were engaged in an epic five-hour battle for the Wimbledon men’s singles crown will be remembered for its bizarre finish.

The super over following the tied scores also ended in a tie, which saw Eoin Morgan’s English team winning the World Cup on the strength of the larger number of boundaries it had scored in the match – 24 to New Zealand’s 17.

What a way to end a cricket final!
A better way could have been thought of to end the tournament; like ordering a second super over, for one..They do it in soccer and hockey tournaments by getting the teams to go through another round of penalty kicks/strokes.

England may have won the World Cup, but Kane Williamson’s New Zealanders won the world’s hearts by the gallant fight they put up in defending a none too strong total. Williamson was adjudged “man of the tournament” – a decision welcomed by all, friend and foe.

The then prime ministers of both countries, both of them women, have led their respective nations in lauding the cricketers. Theresa May thanked the England team for winning the showpiece, thereby ending a 44-year wait, she told her players.

Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand was equally lavish in praising the Black Caps. “That was undeniably an incredible game. I think as a nation we all aged a year in that super over. Congratulations to England .And to the Black Caps, I feel nothing but pride. What a team!”

Don’t forget the semi-finals involving Australia and India. Australia was comprehensively beaten by eight wickets by England and India went down to New Zealand in a close finish by 18 runs in match which went into the reserve day because of rain..

It was so near for India, but within the span of 45 minutes it was all thrown away. In those 45 minutes of ‘ u n a c c e p t a b l y bad cricket’ l a m e n t e d captain Virat Kohli, his side suffered a heartbreaking defeat. Kohli recalled that traumatic moment, ‘We knew that we had a good day and we were proud of that effort. We thought we restricted New Zealand to a score which was chase-able on any surface… . We felt we had the momentum and right mindset going forward.’

But in those ruinous 45 minutes Rohit Sharma, consistent run-getter with a string of centuries, was out for one run, Rahul followed at the same score, and the skipper also for the same one run.The interruption caused by rain broke the flow.

There were the rumblings over the dropping of Ambati Rayudu, who decided to retire from the game altogether, or the omission of Sami, and the position of Dhoni in the batting order, whether he should have gone up at No. 4,or the induction of Ravindra Jadeja whom a former player had described as a ‘bits and pieces’ player.

It turned out that these two were the ones who redeemed the position with a 116-run partnership for the seventh wicket that nearly pulled off a victory. The bits and pieces player was the top scorer with 77 runs and Dhoni was run out to a brilliant throw.by Guptill .India were beaten but not disgraced.



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