The Lord’s Cricket Ground, world renowned as Lord’s, is a cricket venue located in St. John’s Wood, London in the United Kingdom. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The One Day International cricket final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup was played at the picturesque Lord’s on July 14, 2019 to determine the winner. It was contested by the host nation, England and the runners-up from the previous tournament, New Zealand. It was the fifth time Lord’s had hosted the Cricket World Cup Final, the most of any ground.
The two teams were tied on 241 runs at the end of the match, resulting in a Super Over being played to break the tie. On the final ball of New Zealand’s Super Over, after equalling the 15 runs England managed in their over, Martin Guptill attempted to score the winning run but was run out by Jason Roy and Jos Buttler, meaning the Super Over was also tied. England won on the boundary count-back rule, having scored 26 boundaries to New Zealand’s 17, thus becoming Cricket World Cup winners for the first time.
The winning team was to become the first new winner of the World Cup since Sri Lanka’s victory in 1996. It was also the first world final with a guaranteed new winner since 1992.The ICC named Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugalle as the Match Referee. Another Sri Lankan Kumar Dharmasena and South African Marais Erasmus were the on-field umpires, with Australian Rod Tucker as the third umpire, Pakistani Aleem Dar as the reserve umpire.
It was the first time a One Day International final match required a Super Over, and subsequently the first time it had been decided by a boundary count. The match has been described as one of the greatest and most dramatic in the history of the sport, with some analysts describing it as the greatest match in the history of one-day cricket.
Background
The 2019 Cricket World Cup started on May 30, 2019 and was hosted by England and Wales. Ten teams played each other once in a round-robin format with the top four teams going through to the semi-finals. Fourth-placed New Zealand beat group winners India in the first semi-final, and England, who finished third in the group, defeated second-placed Australia in the second.
England played in their first final in 27 years, their last appearance coming in 1992, when they were defeated by Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Their other appearances in the final were in 1979 against the West Indies at Lord’s and 1987 against Australia at Eden Gardens. Despite playing in the second-highest number of finals in the World Cup after Australia, they were yet to win the trophy. New Zealand played in their second final, and also their second in a row. They previously played in the 2015 final but were beaten by Australia.
When England reached the final, demand increased greatly for it to be shown on a free-to-air television channel in the United Kingdom. Rights holders Sky Sports agreed to allow Channel 4, who had the rights to broadcast evening highlights of the tournament, to carry the final in a simulcast. However, due to an existing commitment by Channel 4 to cover the 2019 British Grand Prix, the coverage switched to their sister channel More4 during the motor racing, returning to Channel 4 after the Grand Prix had finished.
It was the first time an England international cricket match had been broadcast on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom since the 2005 Ashes series.8.3 million viewers tuned in to see the final, making it one of the most viewed broadcasts of the year, with the highest audience share since the 2018 FIFA World Cup semi-Final between Croatia and England and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Road to the Final
New Zealand retained the majority of the team that reached their maiden World Cup Final as co-hosts in 2015, although Kane Williamson took on the captaincy following Brendon McCullum’s retirement. They finished level on 11 points with Pakistan in the round-robin stage (five wins, three losses and one no result), but took fourth place by virtue of a better net run rate than Pakistan.
In the semi-finals, they were paired with India, who finished first in the round-robin stage. The match was played at Old Trafford in Manchester on July 9. With New Zealand on 211/5 after 46.1 overs, Williamson having scored 67 and Ross Taylor on the same score at the time, the match was suspended by rain and ultimately play was pushed to the reserve day the next day. Eventually finishing on 239/8, Taylor eventually out for 74, they produced a spirited bowling and fielding performance to leave India 18 runs short. Man of the Match Matt Henry took 3/37, including openers Rohit Sharma and K. L. Rahul caught for just one each and Dinesh Karthik spectacularly caught by James Neesham for 6. Meanwhile, fellow pace bowler Trent Boult had captain Virat Kohli trapped lbw for one and top scorer Ravindra Jadeja caught by Williamson for 77 when a seventh-wicket partnership looked to be swinging the match back in India’s favour. Finally, Martin Guptill ran out World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni for 50 with a direct hit to leave India with just their tail.
England, by contrast, entered as the top-ranked ODI team after director of cricket and former Ashes-winning captain Andrew Strauss helped orchestrate the national team’s white-ball revamp following their bowing out in the group stage in 2015. Only a handful of the players who featured in 2019, including Irish-born captain Eoin Morgan, Test captain Joe Root, wicket-keeper Jos Buttler and bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes, were holdovers from that team, though a good number played in the narrow defeat against the West Indies in the 2016 World Twenty20 Final. Morgan was also the lone remaining member of England’s 2010 World Twenty20 champion team.
Their campaign was nearly derailed after a loss at Lord’s to defending champions and arch-rivals Australia left them having to beat both India and New Zealand to guarantee their semi-final spot. They won both games and finished third in the round-robin stage with 12 points (six wins and three losses). They met group runners-up Australia in the second semi-final at Edgbaston on July 11 and soundly defeated them by 8 wickets to progress to the final. Key moments included Woakes having David Warner caught for 9, Jofra Archer trapping captain Aaron Finch lbw for a golden duck, Buttler running out Australian top scorer and former captain Steve Smith through his legs on 85 and Jason Roy’s 85 off 65 as England completed their chase with 107 balls to spare.
The World Cup Final
Both teams remained unchanged from their semi-final matches. New Zealand decided that the line-up that beat India against the odds would work in their favour in the final, while England’s Jason Roy avoided suspension after his show of dissent in their semi-final match against Australia to open the batting for the hosts.
Some early rain slightly delayed the toss, with the match starting at 10:45, 15 minutes later than scheduled. It was feared that the rain would interfere with the match, but it cleared up quickly, although the overcast conditions and wet grass changed the dynamic of the toss. New Zealand won the toss and decided to bat first.
Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls opened the innings for New Zealand. Nicholls scored 55 in 77 deliveries, his first half-century of the tournament. A further 30 runs from captain Kane Williamson, and 47 from wicket-keeper Tom Latham, helped New Zealand to a total of 241/8 from their 50 overs. Chris Woakes took 3 for 37 in 9 overs and Liam Plunkett also chipped in with three wickets.
Defending a middling score, the New Zealand bowlers bowled effectively, hampering England’s top order, with only Jonny Bairstow managing more than a start with 36. With the loss of their top order, England were 86/4 in the 24th over.However, a century partnership between Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler for the fifth wicket got them back into the game before Buttler was caught. But with five overs to play, England still required another 46 runs and the bottom order were forced to bat more aggressively. Stokes managed to farm the strike and, more crucially, score runs, leaving England needing 15 to win from the final over, two wickets still in hand. After two dot balls, Stokes hit a six into the stands at deep mid-wicket, bringing their score to 233/8.
From the third-last ball of the final over, Stokes drove the ball into mid-wicket. Guptill fielded the ball and threw it back to the striker’s end as Stokes was returning to complete a second run; however, as Stokes dived for the crease, the ball deflected off his bat and to the boundary behind the wicket, resulting in four runs being added to the two that Stokes had run. The final two deliveries went for a run each, but England lost their last two wickets going for a second run each time. Ben Stokes made 84 not out in 98 deliveries. James Neesham took 3/43 in 7 overs.
‘Super Over’ in a Final
With the scores tied at 241, the match went to a Super Over. Stokes and Buttler returned to the crease for England to face the bowling of Trent Boult; the pair scored 15 runs without loss, with both batsmen contributing a boundary four. For New Zealand, Guptill and James Neesham went in to face Jofra Archer, needing 16 runs to claim the title. Archer’s over started badly, beginning with a wide, and a steady accumulation of runs, along with a six from Neesham off the third ball, left New Zealand needing two from the final delivery.
Facing his first ball of the Super Over and the last of the match, Guptill hit the ball to deep mid-wicket and tried to scamper back for the winning run, but Roy’s throw in to Buttler was a good one, and Guptill was run out well short of his crease. New Zealand finished with 15 runs, the Super Over tied, but England’s superior boundary count (26 to New Zealand’s 17) meant they won the World Cup title for the first time in four final appearances. Stokes earned Man of the Match honours with his unbeaten 84, plus eight runs in the Super Over.
The World Cup saw Kane Williamson (NZ) scoring the highest number of runs as a captain in a single World Cup series with 578 runs. Besides, Joe Root of England recorded the highest of 13 catches during the tournament, which incidentally is the highest in a single Cricket World Cup. It also goes to records as the first time that a Super Over was used to determine the winner of a One Day International, and was also the first Super Over to finish in a tie.
The Greatest ODI Final
The closeness of the match, with scores being level even after the end of the Super Over and England claiming the tie-breaker by having scored more boundaries throughout the match, combined with the dramatic turn of events in the final hour and the fact that it was played as a Cricket World Cup Final, led to many former and active players, analysts and media outlets describing it as the greatest cricket match ever played. Former England one-day bowler Stuart Broad called it “the best white ball game of all time.” England players Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow declared the World Cup Final as “the greatest game ever.”
The Guardian’s live commentator wrote: “That is the most amazing game, I have ever seen in my life.” The Sydney Morning Herald called it “one of the most dramatic clashes in cricket history,” while ABC News referred to it as “the greatest ODI ever played.” The headline of The Week was “Super human Ben Stokes drags England to victory in the greatest cricket match.”
Umpire Kumar Dharmasena’s decision to award England six runs following an overthrow boundary in the final over was criticized by former international umpire Simon Taufel, who said it was an “error in judgment” and a “clear mistake” by the on-field umpires. As Stokes and Adil Rashid had not crossed at the moment the New Zealand fielder threw the ball, it was suggested that England should only have been awarded one completed run in addition to the overthrow boundary. Dharmasena later admitted this was an error, though said he would “never regret the decision.” As a result of the incident, the Marylebone Cricket Club said it would review the overthrow rule. Some active and former players criticised the ICC rule of boundary count and not using the wicket count for a tied match. In the wake of the result of the final, the ICC scrapped the boundary count rule; teams will instead play as many Super Overs as are necessary until the one team wins.
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, said that despite the loss she felt “incredibly proud of the Black Caps, and I hope every New Zealander does because they played remarkable cricket.” The New Zealand cricket coach, Gary Stead, said that sharing the World Cup is something that “should be considered.”
Celebrations and Decorations
In the wake of England’s victory, the nation erupted into a state of national pride and celebrations that lasted into the night and most of the next day. The England team stayed at Lord’s for most of the night celebrating. The next day, the team hosted an event at The Oval, inviting fans to meet and greet the team, and pose and take photos with the trophy.
Queen Elizabeth II congratulated the England team on the victory, as well as many other high-profile celebrities: Prince Philip and I send our warmest congratulations to the England Men’s Cricket team after such a thrilling victory in today’s World Cup Final.
British Prime Minister Theresa May invited the England team to 10 Downing Street the day after the victory to celebrate and offer her congratulations. Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major, himself a former Surrey County Cricket Club President and honorary life vice-president, was also in attendance.
In December, Stokes was also named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, making him the first cricketer to win it since Andrew Flintoff in 2005. In the subsequent New Year’s Honours List, six England players and staff received Order of the British Empire decorations: CBEs for Morgan and ECB chairman Colin Graves, OBEs for Stokes and coach Trevor Bayliss and MBEs for Buttler and Root.
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