What an unbelievable finish to a cricket World Cup!
Perhaps I am biased but it seems to me that only cricket can deliver events like those witnessed on Sunday afternoon at Lord's. It's the grandiose nature of the game that allows for these winding narratives to slowly form all the while building towards the inevitable crescendo of a dramatic finish the likes of which are usually reserved for Hollywood movie scripts.
Like a fight scence from the Avengers, England and New Zealand both seemed to have won this match multiple times over only to fail to deliver the coup de gras when victory seemed inevitable.
After restricting The Kiwis to 241 most felt that while it wouldn't be a walk in the park that England would have enough in their locker to get over the line. However, at 86-4 and with the likes of Colin De Grandhomme strangling the life out of our usually fluent batsmen the game appeared to be heading down the route of a farcical comedy with England's predictable failings exaggerated for the kind of comic effect that leaves you wanting to bang your head against a wall as opposed to laugh!
Lockie Ferguson takes a great catch to dismiss England captain Eoin Morgan and leave his side in control of the final
Enter Ben Stokes!
What is it about this country that allows us to produce match-winning all-rounders with such regularity? Is it merely a coincidence that Botham beget Flintoff beget Stokes or is there something within the English psyche that drives us to include cricketers who can play the role of the hero in our time of need? Less the knight in shining armor that you might expect in a Disney classic and more the traditional English yeoman type character that is slightly harder to sell to international audiences, Stokes none the less played his part to perfection.
Stokes has had a very difficult 18months as a cricketer during which he appeared to have lost that spark that made him such an exciting player when he first burst onto the international scene. However, his return to form has seen him complete the classic redemptive arc that seems the hallmark of about 50% of all storylines - the troubled soul turned good! His half-centuries against South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia in the group stages had all given prior warning to opposition sides that this was a man for a crisis.
Stokes and Buttler put on a century stand to give England hope
Prior to the match, there was an interesting interview with Sir Geoff Hurst and Will Greenwood who spoke of their experiences of winning a football and rugby union World Cup respectively. As Greenwood pointed out, in high-pressure situations, all the preparations and tactics generally go out of the window and it is that ability to find a way to win that is the hallmark of true champions.
One could argue that for New Zealand, the game went pretty much to script - win the toss, get a competitive total on the board and use your strong bowling line-up and scoreboard pressure to subjugate the opposition - and yet they lost. Conversely, England got the kind of pitch they would least like to have played on, their bowlers did ok but were well short of the form shown against Australia and their much-vaunted top-order failed on the biggest stage - and yet they won.
One of the most bizarre incidents you will ever see in a game of cricket as Ben Stokes hits an accidental 6
For England it was their ability to improvise alongside the sheer bloody-mindedness of Stokes, in particular, that got them over the line. Yes, there were moments of good fortune along the way but it was his determination that saw England get into a position where such luck actually meant something towards the end result. If boundaries scored isn't a good enough measure of determining the winner for you then how about the amount of blood, sweat and tears shed during the game? Stokes gargantuan efforts leave him a deserving World Cup winner.
As for New Zealand, it was very much a case of "what if?". I guess that any game that finishes as a tie and then has the tie-breaker finish as a tie is going to be one filled with regret for the side that ultimately loses it regardless of the deciding factor. However, Trent Boult stumbling backward over the boundary rope was the movie equivalent of the hot young teen who decides to take a midnight stroll through the forest when there is an ax-murderer on the lose. It leaves the audience with their head in their hands asking why did you have to be so complicit in your own inevitable downfall.
Trent Boult misjudges the boundary rope to hand England 6 and Stokes another life
In fact, the only thing that was missing from this epic drama was the customary bad guys. I don't think even the most ardent English cricket fan would have begrudged New Zealand winning this tournament. As always they played with pride, with passion and no little amount of skill. In Kane Williamson, they have a wonderful batsman, a great captain and one of the best ambassadors for the spirit of cricket in the modern game. If England seem to have a conveyor belt for producing great all-rounders then New Zealand appears to have one for creating great thinkers on the sport in general with Williamson following in the footsteps of the likes of Flemming, Vettori and McCullum before him.
The game also provided that classic plot twist of the apprentice finally becoming the master. After all, it was England's ritual humiliation against New Zealand 4 years ago that really prompted a massive reassessment of the way we view white ball cricket in this country. Add to that the close relationship between former Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum and Eoin Morgan that left the New Zealander's fingerprints smudged across this England squad and you could very well argue that this was an England victory made in New Zealand.
Let's be honest, as English supporters we should have seen this coming. In any sport, it seems like we don't win World Cups the easy way but then again those victories wouldn't have made for such compelling stories if we had.