Right then, I’m off. Somewhere out there, England’s players continue to celebrate an insanely close and in some quarters controversial World Cup victory. In a couple of hours they’ll be at Downing Street. In a matter of months, by all accounts, they’ll be at Buckingham Palace to pick up some gongs. In short, it’s a marvellous time to be a cricket fan (unless you’re a Kiwi). Enjoy!
A few news bites:
Labour’s Tom Watson wants there to be at least one England game on free-to-air television every year. “England winning the Cricket World Cup final was an astonishing achievement that had millions of people at the edge of their seats. It was brilliant to see great cricket come out from behind the paywall and for the final to be shown on free-to-air TV,” he said. “We want as many people as possible to be able to share in the best of our sporting moments. That’s why Labour would review the list of crown jewel sporting events that are broadcast free-to-air.”
Rugby union ace Brad Shields says the cricketers have inspired England’s ball-throwing types: “The emotion in the room when England won really showed, it was crazy. It brought us down to earth, making some of us realise ‘now this is real, we can be those people on TV’. I’m glad I was with the team to watch it. To know we’re capable of that and to have that opportunity is pretty cool. We know that we could be the next team to win the World Cup for England and that’s our goal.”
A postbox near Lord’s has been painted white.
“I’ve seen it published in a few different places that England is the first country to win the men’s World Cup for football, rugby and cricket,” notes Phil Russell. “Do you think it is a coincidence that they had to go to extra time on each occasion to do it? Being an England supporter is something else when it comes to emotional roller-coasters!”
“I spent yesterday watching both the cricket and tennis finals on adjacent screens in a Teddington pub,” writes Michael Mand. “Just as both went to ‘extra time’, the bar staff decided that both had ended in draws and turned off the TVs, so that a lame Bob Dylan impersonator could take the stage.”
That’s an abomination. I’d have been beyond furious. I’d have been knockin’ on the landlord’s door, that’s for sure.
Here’s a great photo from the Oval celebrations:
Here’s Richard Williams on yesterday’s Super Sporting Sunday:
Several readers experienced precisely the same commentary outage described by Justin Horton below. “I wouldn’t say it completely spoiled the whole thing, but it certainly took the wind out of the sails at exactly the wrong moment and you would have heard loud swearing coming from my flat if you’d been walking past,” writes Richard Harman, from Bressanone, Italy.
Lots of you are sending in your World Cup final stories, and if you’ve got some more World Cup feelings to get off your chest, this might be the place for it:
Here’s Tim de Lisle, who did some fine work on the OBO yesterday. I suspect that there are a lot of similar words stored for posterity on a lot of journalists’ laptops.
On the @guardian_sport live blog last night, Rob Smyth was writing beautifully and I was waiting to pop up with the instant verdict. It was fairly clear who was going to win, so I started writing... @Simon_Burnton pic.twitter.com/eJbBSfsfLo
— Tim de Lisle (@TimdeLisle) July 15, 2019
A report from this morning’s Kennington-based celebrations: “I work around the corner from the Oval and popped down earlier to hang with the champs,” writes Lewis Freeth. “Paparazzi were heckled for obstructing our view like a swarm of clicky locusts. That aside, it’s a lovely old lump of gold.”
I don’t like plugging obvious PR exercises, but NatWest have programmed a bowling simulator to precisely replicate Trent Boult’s super over, and anyone who turns up to Kings Cross today (it ends at 6pm) can have a go facing it, which sounds like fun (annoyingly lengthy queue depending).
Meanwhile Justin Horton is in Huesca. “It wasn’t a great finish for everybody. I live abroad and had listened to the radio commentary via cricketworldcup.com right from the opening over. But with about five overs to go, at what I should think was half past six your time, it suddenly cut out, to be replaced by a message saying something like ‘This programme is no longer available. This is either because of rights restrictions or a technical error. Please try again later.’
“Try as I might, I couldn’t get it back, and though all kinds of ball-by-ball services were available (eventually I went and sat in the shed, and followed the Super Over online) it’s very much not the same, especially when you’ve followed the whole game.
I don’t know who or what was responsible, or if anybody else had the same experience, but it spoiled the match, the day and the memory completely.”
Any fellow sufferers out there?
Hi everyone, Simon here again. I return with an email from Tony Chronnell: “My Dad and I were at England’s first final in 1979 when Viv Richards and Collis King smashed us all around the ground. These days I’m living in Hamburg and I watched the end of the game with my German wife (who doesn’t understand cricket at the best of times and certainly couldn’t understand my gibbering attempts to explain the last few overs). Today I’m sitting here in the office amongst German, Finnish, Chinese and Italian colleagues, none of whom follow cricket or know that England won the World Cup, or can share the agonies and ecstasy of last night. It’s fair to say that the Company IT system is currently experiencing an unusual spike in the number of cricket pages and videos viewed, but luckily no one has yet caught me crying at my desk! And my 84 year old Dad when I texted him last night to share my joy and thank him for introducing me to cricket all those years ago? A single message saying, ‘Not a fair result’!”
Jimsey on the Australian reaction to losing as compared to their old friends in New Zealand. “In response to Anthony Pease’s lovely email, I’d wager here in Australia we couldn’t possibly react with the same level of grace, sportsmanship and humility that the Black Caps have if we’d lost a final in that manner. Unfortunately it’s not in the DNA of the national cricket team, and that is the biggest lesson we need to learn since Sandpaper-gate. Ah well, there’s always the Ashes.”
David Horovitz emails from Jerusalem, where he”watched the mind-boggling drama unfold through Sunday afternoon and evening via a succession of unreliable live-streaming websites that went into beyond-infuriating buffering mode at several pivotal moments — though not, crucially, in the final minutes.”
Horovitz wrote this in a Times of Israel piece last night, in the immediate aftermath of all that glorious insanity: “What was most striking was the composition of this England team... This group of players, of different places of origin, skin color and religion, having come close to exiting the tournament in its earlier rounds, pulled and pushed each other forward to victory. It was a success that ultimately came down to team spirit, to togetherness... It exemplified a whole so much greater than the sum of its disparate parts... What a joy to behold.”
Memories of 2015. Here’s how we covered the final four years ago, which was not quite so exciting. For reference, the writer was Australian. They might be more excited once they come out of their current wilderness period. That might be the Ashes, of course.
Announcing the result: “Smith pulls to leg for four and it’s all over. Australia win by seven wickets. The final was a bit of a letdown really, but there’s no question that the best team in the tournament have won it.”
Final post: “So that’s that. A decent tournament comes to an end – it’s not been a classic but it’s not been too bad.”
Updated
Alex Hughes was watching the game in a most exotic location, but then had to reach for the bank of Mum and Dad. “I watched the game yesterday on my laptop in a hostel in Merida, Mexico. Unfortunately, my (totally legitimate cough cough) stream went down just before the start of the 49th over. After the excruciating experience of following the 49th over by refreshing the OBO, I decided to call my parents back in the UK and my Dad provided commentary for me on the super overs via a WhatsApp call. While this was not quite the same standard of commentary as TMS it had its own unique charm. It was difficult to hear what dad was saying because he was being drowned out by the sound of Mum just screaming something inaudible about Jofra Archer over and over again in background during the second super over. By the end mum was so frazzled she was muttering something about Australians (not sure why) and on the last ball Dad finally also lost his composure and just screamed ‘run out, run out, run out, run out’ so I just about got the message that England had won.”
Anthony Pease emails in: “Afternoon, John Is it just me, or are the Kiwis taking this result with significantly more grace and humour than their cross-Tasman cousins?”
I couldn’t possibly comment.
Cockermouth School PE teacher Chris Hayes, Ben Stokes’ cricket coach for four years, has been talking to the Press Association about his star pupil:
I was absolutely convinced he would not be out. I’ve seen that in him before. He won’t give his wicket away. He’ll take that responsibility to try and see the job through and close the deal - and by hook or by crook he did. He had that determination all the time, that game management as well as the talent. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he was able to do that. You talk about his lack of concentration in the team meeting or school environment, but the ability to concentrate with that bat in hand is unbelievable and he showed that on many occasions with us. He wanted to be involved in all formats of the game - his batting, his bowling, his fielding. He could throw the ball further than anybody I’d ever seen…He came through and matured in the game at the same time as Twenty20 took off. I thought he could play T20 for England potentially, knowing he could reach the boundary - he’s always been able to hit the ball. The interesting thing to me is that he’s made his mark in Test matches as much as he has in the one-day game. He’s not just a professional cricketer, he’s not just an international cricketer, he’s actually a world-class cricketer. You can’t really spot that! You think this lad is good and he’ll make a cricketer, but to go on and be a world-class cricketer... he’s been unbelievable.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has been Instagramming:
Simon Jenkins thinks the final should have ended in a tie.
Cricket had gone the way of football’s penalty shootouts.
Publicity corner from an Aussie bookmaker? From the New Zealand Herald.
Australian bookmaker Sportsbet has refunded those who put money on the Black Caps to win the Cricket World Cup final against England...The company said it had refunded 11,458 people a total sum of $426,223 after the host nation won the final on a controversial boundary countback rule following tied scores after 102 overs of cricket. “Punters who backed New Zealand in both the head to head and the outright tournament market will be refunded their stakes in bonus bets. Let’s not beat around the bush, for a World Cup to be decided in that manner is an absolute disgrace, and the punters shouldn’t have to pay for the ineptness of the ICC,” said a spokesman.
Vic Marks considers whether cricket can recapture the audiences of yore.
Jim Waterson has the news on the viewing figures. For reference, 15m watched the Rugby World Cup final in 2003, and in 1966 it was 32.3m viewers. It was 7.4m for the Ashes in 2005.
Updated
Afternoon. No scenes like this as yet.
or this from 2003, for that matter.
Or this from 1966.
I’m going to take a quick(ish) break. John Brewin will keep you up do date in the meantime - send your emails to him here, if you would. Bye for now!
“I’ve seen a lot of people asking who wrote the script for England’s 50th over, in particular the six runs from the overthrow,” writes Chris Laycock. “Does no one else remember the episode of Neighbours where Karl needed a six off the last ball to win? He hit it for two, but then got four overthrows to win the match. Just me then?”
This is actually a thing. As neighboursepisodes.com describes it:
Drew is batting and now they need 6 to win off two balls. Unfortunately, the ball goes in the air and Drew is caught out. Now it’s up to Karl to make six off the last ball. Joe raises his eyes to heaven and prays. Gordon Collins torments Lou and says he doesn’t fancy Karl’s chances.Karl steps up to the crease and Joe advises him - “Never Give In” The ball comes and Karl hits it, but it isn’t hit for six. However, a series of fielding errors ensues - they run two and then the ball goes over the boundary and gives them and extra four. Our Heroes start shouting excitedly that they’ve won, Joe kisses Karl and Lou tells Gordon Collins that he’ll take cash or cheque!
“I was just at the Oval and can confirm that Liam Plunkett looked mullered,” reports Daniel King.
Mike Hesson, New Zealand’s head coach from 2012 to 2018, has written for the Sydney Morning Herald about the World Cup final. Here’s how he starts:
Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan should have jointly lifted the Cricket World Cup. Certainly neither England nor New Zealand deserved to lose.
Using a Super Over to decide it was farcical and the International Cricket Council needs to give itself an uppercut for even entertaining it as a tiebreaker. To just copy and paste the playing conditions from Twenty20 and use the highest number of boundaries to determine who wins in the event of a tied Super Over is not at all necessary. This is a 50-over World Cup.
I didn’t agree with the concept of the Super Over in the first place. The whole idea of a Super Over is in a situation when you need a side to progress, like in a semi-final. That’s when the necessity of finding a winner makes sense. When you’re playing a final of a World Cup after seven weeks’ hard toil, to decide it by some obscure means that is made for T20 cricket is ridiculous.
Sky interview Jason Roy. He can hardly speak.
I don’t think I’ll ever be part of something like that again. The yo-yo of emotions throughout the whole day was scary. I couldn’t watch. I spent 10 overs in the showers just holding my head. I didn’t know what was going on.
He says that after delivering the ball to Jos Buttler for the decisive run-out “I tried to run off, but realised by legs don’t work. My legs were wobbling. I lay on the floor for a couple of minutes.” He also says he will “hopefully” be part of England’s Ashes team.
I’ve been surprised by how decent all the England players look at the Oval, compared with the Pietersen- and Flintoff-led madness in 2005. However, apparently there are some rough faces about:
There might be a human being looking more hungover than James Vince right now, but you’d be hard pushed to find them
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) July 15, 2019
This gallery of Tom Jenkins’ best photographs from Lord’s is thoroughly excellent:
Updated
The Times is reporting that every member of England’s World Cup squad will be honoured for their achievement, saying “Whitehall sources” have told them that MBEs and OBEs will be handed out in the New Year Honours list.
“At 86-4, I decided to cut my losses and accompany my wife to the 14 July celebrations at the French embassy in Amman rather than endure the pain of watching the capitulation at home alone, but took my earphones along just in case,” writes Charlie Dunmore. “At 150-4 I tuned into to TMS, and spent the next two hours staring blankly ahead while people quaffed their wine and chatted around me. My primal scream when Butler broke the stumps to win the game drew plenty of strange looks, but not half as many as when I sheepishly explained that England had just become World Champions. ‘Champions de quoi..?’”
“I don’t think anything will faze me again,” says Jos Buttler:
I can’t believe what has happened, but it’s nice to wake up and know it did. I don’t think anything will faze me again. I don’t think think I’ll ever care about anything ever again. I don’t really care what happens now in my career.”
We were laughing about the fact that four years of work came down to one ball. Four years and then then it’s one ball ... can we get a run-out? It justifies everything we have done for four years to get to this point. It’s an incredible journey.
At the end I remember that 10 seconds of just running around, the atmosphere is something that will live with me forever. It’s alright when you’re in the middle because it’s what you know - catch a ball, smash the stumps - but the consequences are obviously quite a lot larger!
The England players are gamely submitting to interviews on the field at the Oval. Here’s Mark Wood:
It hasn’t quite sunk in until this morning. Everyone’s on their phones, talking about last night. Last night was pure ecstasy. Everyone was on top of the world. It’s pretty surreal to be honest. A pretty special moment. I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like that again. Especially in a World Cup final. Almost beyond belief.
This just in from our deputy political editor, Rowena Mason:
Theresa May - a devoted cricket fan - has invited the England men’s cricket team to Downing Street for a reception this evening to celebrate their victory.
Ahead of the event, she said: “Yesterday was a brilliant performance by a brilliant team. They showed flair courage and an absolute determination to become world champions. The achievement delivered in such a thrilling style on home soil will live forever in our sporting history. It is also exciting to think how many children will be inspired by this victory to pick up a bat for the first time and hopefully become the great cricketers of tomorrow.”
Theresa May was at Lord’s yesterday (and at Wimbledon on Saturday; she had quite the sporting weekend):
“A couple of contributions haven’t yet received the focus they perhaps deserve,” writes John Withington. “Firstly, Jofra Archer faced with seven needed off four balls? A remarkable comeback after the first three balls including the wide. And how about Jason Roy who’s not had a good tournament in the field? The ball followed him all over the park in that final over, fielding three of the six legal deliveries. The first he fumbled terribly to concede an extra run. The second he chose the wrong end to throw to. He knew that he’d probably lost the World Cup when England could have had two run-outs to win the game. And then the final ball. He was probably a little too deep on the boundary, wasn’t the fastest off the line, but gathered cleanly and fired in the perfect throw. Massive bottle under huge pressure.”
Here’s our news story on the suggestion that England were erroneously awarded an extra run:
Stephen van Rooyen, Sky’s UK and Ireland chief executive, has released a statement about the viewing figures:
We’ve been proud host broadcasters of a home cricket World Cup, dedicating a channel and showing every single minute, which has been absorbing from the first ball to the unforgettable final delivery. Sunday saw a peak across Sky and Channel 4 of 8.3 million – a huge audience for a huge moment for British sport. On Sky’s channels our peak was 3.5m alone, a fitting way to cap a terrific tournament.
We are proud of our long term cricket partnership, which has grown over three decades, delivering record investment into the sport. This partnership will continue with our coverage of the Men’s and Women’s Ashes this Summer, and by working with the ECB to deliver a new grassroots cricket participation campaign
New Zealand’s players have also been up and out this morning:
The @BLACKCAPS captain Kane Williams says the disappointment “hits you in waves” “you wake up and think it’s a bad dream” .. he says “the guys are gutted .. truly gutted” .. it’s an “odd feeling to not have a loser in the match but have a winner “ @1NewsNZ pic.twitter.com/51brUtb3pl
— Joy Reid (@JoyReidTVNZ) July 15, 2019
As a remarkably fresh-faced group of players sign infinite autographs on the Oval turf, Ashley Giles is quizzed by Sky:
Amazing day yesterday. The boys all thoroughly enjoyed their night I think as well. I think some of them have slept. We just don’t have days like we had yesterday. To be world champions, after all the work that’s gone in over the last four years, and the emotions yesterday, I think we’re all exhausted. The whole day was hard but the last half an hour was just dreadful. I thought we’d won it, then I thought we’d lost it, then I thought we’d lost it by even more, and then to go to the super over ... I understand there were three or four people in the crowd who passed out.
For now, they have arrived at the Oval, and are fighting their way through a throng of schoolkids.
The England team will attend a reception with the Prime Minister at Downing Street at 7pm this evening. A visual reminder of England’s last post-victory visit:
More cricket/Tanya Aldred action: today’s County Championship liveblog is happening here:
This from Yevaru BTL on England’s controversial overthrow six: “On TMS, Michael Vaughan said he was sat near Jos Buttler when that overthrow happened. Buttler’s reaction shows he’s as cool off the pitch as he is on it: ‘That’s the first one Ben has middled all day.’”
Here’s Tanya Aldred’s take on yesterday’s drama:
I suspect there are lots of stories like this one, from Ben Lingard. “I have never gone through such emotion watching sport,” he writes. “I started the day sat on the sofa at my parents house with my dad, not long after the loss of [England’s] third wicket I had to leave to catch a train home. I get on the train , boot up the Sky Go app, Buttler and Stokes at the crease. I am hitting every ball with them, screaming at every boundary and wincing at every near miss and my heart stopping every time . A fellow fan across the carriage spots me and takes out his headphones as we both see Buttler slice in the hands of the NZ sub fielder. “It’s over,’ he says.
“Next a train change at Lancaster. I run phone in hand to make the Virgin train, I dart into the nearest door and commence viewing, there is a man there receiving updates over the phone from his wife. I invite him to watch with me on my phone, a few minutes later there are 5 of us huddled around my phone, cheering, jeering, hoping our hearts don’t pack up! What a rollercoaster, myself and four complete strangers in absolute delirium as Buttler takes the bails off to break New Zealand hearts!”
The gates are open at the Oval and the England team and their new trophy are about 15 minutes away. There are 1,000 local schoolchildren there, but grown-ups are allowed too.
The super over: "It’s a little bit like deciding a marathon with a 100-metre sprint at the end of it"
In New Zealand, there are some complaints that the title was eventually decided on a fairly arbitrary metric (the number of boundaries hit in the final), rather than on wickets taken, or dot balls bowled, or just letting the teams share the trophy. This is what the former New Zealand all-rounder Dion Nash told stuff.co.nz:
It’s ridiculous... really absurd. It’s about as random as tossing a coin. But you also have to look at it from the [view of the] people setting the rules. I mean who thinks it’s going to be a draw, and then you draw in the Super Over? What are the chances? You can’t complain, it was done at the start of the tournament. [But] I think that’s probably indicative of where the game’s mindset’s at. Why not credit the guys who took the most wickets? The real measure that was used for generations was least amount of wickets lost. So why have we changed that?
Meanwhile the former Kiwi wicket-keeper Peter McGlashan said this:
I think it’s a shame, that we’ve played a tournament which has gone for 48 games, and yet it’s decided by someone getting out a piece of paper and a pen and picking apart the bones, New Zealand’s strength throughout this tournament has been about rotating the strike, our strength hasn’t been boundaries, so it seems a bit of a shame to be judged by that all of a sudden.
A Super Over works for T20s, but I think 50-over cricket needs to have something that reflects the amount of work and energy that’s gone into the game. The Super Over just seems the wrong way to decide it. It’s a little bit like deciding a marathon with a 100-metre sprint at the end of it - it’s not the appropriate way to judge the performance of the athletes on show.
Updated
Another choice clip from yesterday, as Moeen and Rashid make a last-minute dash from the imminent Champagne deluge.
Two of England’s World Cup winners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid giving new expression to the cricket term “run out “ pic.twitter.com/3mFtMlnYjL #CWC19Final
— Ashraf Garda (@AshrafGarda) July 14, 2019
Overnight viewing figures suggest that a peak of 4.5 million people watched on Channel 4, with an average of 2.4 million. Sky also showed it on three channels, which had a combined average viewership of 1,474,000 people, and a peak of a shade under three million. In the Sunday sporting spectacular it was well beaten by the tennis (peak 9.6 million, average 6 million), but thrashed the GP (peak 2.5 million, average 1.8 million).
This bit wasn’t in the highlights packages, for some reason:
This was my particular highlight.... pic.twitter.com/5euAr6Hd8g
— Chris Haines (@chrisafhaines) July 15, 2019
Here’s a report on celebrations on the streets of England (my favourite bit of this photo, by the way, is the random shoe flying through the top-left corner):
And here’s a report on the rather different reaction on the streets of New Zealand:
The cricket is of course on all British front pages today. Here’s the Guardian:
Monday’s GUARDIAN: “ ‘I’m still waiting for an apology’ “ #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/TTVH2G3uzc
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 14, 2019
Though I do think the Times’ wraparound front wins today’s front-page title by a knockout:
The Times wrap around cover 15/07/2019.
— The Times Pictures (@TimesPictures) July 15, 2019
England win after super over in exhilarating final.
Picture credit: Pixel8000 #thetimes #CWC19 #tomorrowspaperstoday @thetimes pic.twitter.com/MLwhUgoRNO
“You’ve hit the nail on the head there, I think,” says Simon McMahon. “What made yesterday’s events at Lord’s so memorable was not just the incredible skill allied to heart-stopping drama, but the sheer likeability of both sets of players, and the honouring of crickets greatest traditions. I for one will forever associate England’s eventual triumph, after a remarkable four year journey, with the unbelievable class and dignity shown by the New Zealand players. *Cliche alert* (but it needs saying, because it’s true) - cricket really was the winner.”
Some advice from New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham:
Kids, don’t take up sport. Take up baking or something. Die at 60 really fat and happy.
— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) July 15, 2019
Simon Taufel: umpires' mistake gifted England extra run
One of the big talking-points remains the six runs awarded to England when the ball deflected off Ben Stokes’ bat and to the boundary, turning two runs for England into six. Here’s a visual reminder:
Here’s the relevant law:
19.8 Overthrow or wilful act of fielder
If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be
- any runs for penalties awarded to either side and
- the allowance for the boundary and
- the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act.
The issue being that the batsmen had not crossed for the second run when Martin Guptill released the ball. Thus England should have been awarded five runs, rather than six.
The former umpire Simon Taufel has been speaking to the Australian media about this, and here’s what he told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age:
There was a judgement error on the overthrow. The judgement error was the timing of when the fielder threw the ball. The act of the overthrow starts when the fielder releases the ball. That’s the act. It becomes an overthrow from the instant of the throw.
In this particular case, the umpires have got a lot on their plate, because like every ball, they’ve had to watch the batsmen complete the first run, they’ve had to watch the ball being fielded, to understand how it’s in play, whether the fielder’s done the right thing. Then they’ve got to look to see when the ball is released, in case there is an overthrow. And that happens every delivery of the game. And then they’ve got to back to see where the two batsmen are.
They’ve then got to follow on and see what happens after that, whether there is a run out, whether there’s an ‘obstructing the field’, whether the ball is taken fairly. There’s multitudes of decisions to be taken off the one delivery. What’s unfortunate is that people think that umpiring is just about outs and not outs. They forget we make 1000s of decisions every match.
So it’s unfortunate that there was a judgement error on the timing of the release of the ball and where the batsmen were. They did not cross on their second run, at the instant of the throw. So given that scenario, five runs should have been the correct allocation of runs, and Ben Stokes should have been at the non-striker’s end for the next delivery.
We’re not perfect. You’ve got the best two umpires in the elite panel doing the final. They’re doing their best like the other two teams are. This is just part of the game.
I think it’s unfair to say that the World Cup was decided by that one event. There’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ and ‘what should bes’ and ‘what could bes’ that happen off those 600-plus deliveries. That’s the nature of sport.
Updated
Let’s just start with this moment. It’s 220-7, England need 22 from nine balls, and Trent Boult catches Ben Stokes just inside the rope, before tossing the ball to Martin Guptill. If he treads on the boundary rope before throwing the ball, it’s six. If he doesn’t, it’s out, and New Zealand effectively win the World Cup. Just think of all the sportspeople in all the sports who would and indeed do do absolutely anything to give their sides victory: punch the ball off the line in the dying moments of World Cup quarter-final; arrange state-sponsored doping factories; sneak sandpaper onto the field in their underpants. And then consider what Guptill’s instinct was at this moment: to instantly award England the six. Sure, the TV umpire would have done it anyway, but I thought that moment of honesty summed up the Kiwis’ class.
Hello world!
So far this morning I’ve watched the Channel 4 highlights, and then Sky’s highlights. For what it’s worth, Sky’s were much better. Anyway, I can confirm that it actually happened, and the entire business was absolutely ludicrous in the most fantastic way: drama, skill, luck, mistakes from players and umpires, emotion, more drama, the use of rules that few would have expected anyone would even read let alone put into action, and also the most phenomenal sportsmanship, astonishingly impressive in the circumstances. Let’s see what the world has to say about it, shall we?
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