Heart-stopping, heartbreaking, a blockbuster of a ripper. No one had seen one like this. And no one ever will. It was insane. It was pulsating. It was chaotic. It was breathtaking. It was cruel. It was unbelievable. It was extraordinary. It was epochal. It will be unforgettable. And after we have dealt with it all, we will be forever grateful we saw it.
It was never going to be easy, was it? Two teams without a World Cup title between them in 44 years of the men’s competition. After 100 overs, the last couple of which contained almost as much drama as a few previous finals in their entirety, nothing could separate England and New Zealand. For the first time in World Cup history, a Super Over was required to determine the winner.
When they got to bed, New Zealand will have slept with no faith in justice or god, and they will bear the staggering misfortune of it for the rest of their lives. But England will take it as their destiny. History rewards the winners. It was just meant to be: after 44 years of desperate longing, and four years of relentless preparation, the trophy is theirs. It doesn’t matter just now what this win may or may not engender: for Eoin Morgan and his delirious troop, the revolution has reaped its reward. The World Cup has come home.
There is a new name on the cup, then, but they didn’t half keep the engravers waiting. England had built towards this competition for four years, planned for it, yearned for it – and when the moment came, the outburst was rapturous. Staid and stuffy Lord’s had become a cauldron of emotion long before that last passage of play.
However, New Zealand deserved better than to end up the fall guys again. Their captain, Kane Williamson, orchestrated his men in the field to squeeze England’s chase until it became unbearable. Kane Williamson is a beautiful man, we are all agreed on this. He is also, possibly, not human. Who knows how long it was after the end of a World Cup final that he and his side didn’t lose, twice, that he turned up to try and make sense of a game that may never make sense to anybody, not those who played it, not those who witnessed it, and not those tasked to document it? But he tried, which is what makes him not human.
“Just one of those things.” Williamson said in his post-match interview.
One of those things, Kane? One of those things? The word he didn’t use was ‘luck’ and luck is really the only reason Williamson and New Zealand are not world champions right now.
If ever there was a day to believe in the randomness of life, that things just happen and they don’t necessarily happen for a reason, this was that day. S*** happens and, at the end of it, it’s lucky for someone and unlucky for someone else, and sometimes it’s nothing for nobody and passes by unnoticed.
You can take nothing away from England’s triumph, but only underscores the deep sense of New Zealand’s loss and the cruelty of it all. That and also that the beneficiaries of luck have the luxury of calling it whatever they want.
ENGLAND: 44 YEARS OLD WORLD CUP VIRGINS
On the contrary the people of England and Wales should be proud of their cricket team. They were knocked down back in 2015. They have known dark days. But they have climbed back up and, on the biggest occasions, when their nation wanted it the most, English team took responsibility and very often delivered. They contracted a fine cricket team in the past four years and modernized the game. England; World Cup final match-winner: that’s their reputation now.
