After Eoin Morgan’s side finished on 241 all out in pursuit of New Zealand’s 241-8, the final came down to a six-ball shootout for each team.
LONDON: If strokes from the bat can’t do it, a stroke of luck can. In perhaps the biggest piece of fortune recorded on the field of international cricket, the World Cup final turned on its head. Riding some scintillating batting by Ben Stokes and an extraordinary deflection off his bat, the Cup came home!
There were two ties, one after 50 overs, another after the Super Over. In the end, cricket’s biggest prize was decided on the number of boundaries scored. England 26, New Zealand 17. It was also the first time that an international match had been decided in this manner. Ripley’s Believe it or Not could not have bettered this. No chance.
Lord’s is a grand old venue. There are many relics of the past strewn around. It seemed the spirits of the past are also around. What happened in the World Cup final was scarcely real. Perhaps a story out of fantasy would have been more believable. Not perhaps! Surely.
All the supernatural forces were in play. And England being the home team benefited. Some home advantage this was. When all looked gone after a titanic struggle, came that stroke of luck.
England would have needed seven from two balls had a throw from the deep not deflected off Stokes’s bat and run all the way to the boundary. Rules do permit that if it happens unintentionally and in this case, Stokes didn’t do it on purpose.
The equation came down to three from two balls. It was Stokes’ luck, England’s and of everybody present that it turned the 12th World Cup final into the most thrilling one-day match ever. Of course, the drama was not over and concluded with the first-ever Super Over in the history of the competition, which added to what all was going around.
There were extraordinary scenes. Everybody was shaking with excitement and disbelief. Hands trembled in the press box while typing. Jaws fell off.
“What have we witnessed? Is it real?” was the common refrain. It wasn’t. Not by any of the usual parameters followed on a cricket field. This was out of the books of spirits, fairies and unicorns. How could it be real! It kept going on and on.
Even in the last 12 deliveries of the match, the Super Over. Nobody knew what was going to happen because till the last piece of action, everything was open.
Not that what was happening before the closing stages was not exciting enough. Wickets tumbling, run rate climbing, diving catches and fortunes fluctuating — it had everything.
If New Zealand looked good at one stage, England came back through the partnership between Stokes and Jos Buttler. And then New Zealand seemed to have nosed ahead again. Just as it seemed that they had it wrapped up, that deflection brought England back. Spooky? What else!
It was not possible for anyone to keep calm. Beyond imagination it was, but the throws had to be accurate and hands couldn’t tremble while doing that. Jason Roy showed it in the end, with a hurl from deep mid-wicket which ran out Martin Guptill to force the second tie of the match. It was an extraordinary display of nerves of steel. If there had to be an unsung hero of the match, Roy it had to be. A fumble, throw a few inches wide, and the Cup would have travelled to New Zealand.
It was difficult to see and believe, forget describing it in words. Fittingly in an uncanny way, it happened in a place which has seen a lot. The spirits of all those tales were present on Sunday. They came, they saw and they conquered. That England won was just incidental.
