The finish combined drama and terror, outrageous reversals of fortune and the utter confusion of a dead heat after a dead heat
Five months on I can still remember all of it. But never all of it at once. It returns, instead, in fickle flashes and brief bolts. Martin Guptill knocks the ball to midwicket and scampers for a run. England need 15 to win off four balls. The sunlight is golden and glorious. Ben Stokes slides desperately for his ground, bat outstretched. New Zealand win the toss and bat. Jason Roy gathers the ball. The sunlight is golden and glorious. I want to vomit.
Anyone who tells you the 2019 World Cup final was the greatest game of cricket played has probably not seen enough cricket. It is forgotten now what a drab spectacle it was for the most part: played on a terrible, sticky Lord’s pitch producing two tortuously low scores. But in one important sense it was utterly unsurpassable: the sheer, bewildering theatre of two teams wrestling each other on the narrowest, most hazardous of precipices.
Written by Jonathan Liew
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/23/jawdropping-moments-2019-england-win-cricket-world-cup under the title “Jaw-dropping sport moments of 2019: England win the Cricket World Cup”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
