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An ODI World Cup final at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground and two teams which never won the title faced each other in the title clash. In the end, the match ended in a tie followed by a super over which also got a tie. Despite the similar scores between both the teams after 102 overs of cricket on a single day, England still ended up winning the Cricket World Cup title while New Zealand finished as runners-up for the second consecutive time. On July 14, 2019, England finally broke the curse of an ODI World Cup and clinched the title in front of their home crowd in a one of the most thrilling finals in the history of the sport.
Batting first in a big final clash, New Zealand posted 241 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Henry Nicolls top scored with 55(77) runs while Tom Latham contributed with 47 runs off 56 balls. For England, Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett scalped three wickets each. Chasing the winning target, England were struggling to get big partnerships as they were reduced to 86/4 after 23.1 overs. After that, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler took charge of the innings.
Ben Stokes’ heroics and New Zealand’s fumble made England lift 2019 World Cup title on boundary count
Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler put up a partnership of 110 runs as England were back in the game. Buttler got out after scoring 59(60) runs, hitting six boundaries but Stokes was still at the crease and took the match to the final over. With 15 runs needs off the last over, Stokes missed the first two ball and now New Zealand were heading closer towards their maiden title. However, he went to hit a massive six against Trent Boult. On the very next ball, Stokes again attempted a boundary towards deep mid wicket but couldn’t time it well and went on to go for a double. While Stokes was completing a second run, Martin Guptill attempted for a direct hit but the ball ended up hitting Stokes’ bat and changed its direction towards the boundary.
Where it shouldn’t have more than two runs, England ended up getting six runs on that ball without the batsman hitting the ball in the air. On the next two ball, England suffered back-to-back runouts by adding two more runs and were bowled out for 241 runs. Ben Stokes top scored with 84* runs off 98 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes. After 100 overs of the game, both the teams ended up getting a same total in a World Cup final and match went down to the Super Over.
In the super over, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler came to bat for England and ended up scoring 15 runs in six balls. In reply, New Zealand sent Martin Guptill and James Neesham to chase 16 runs on six balls. It again turned out to be a thriller as New Zealand now needed two runs on the last ball to win, while England aimed for a tie as they were ahead in term of boundary count. On the last ball, Martin Guptill attempted for a double on Jofra Archer and took no time on taking the first run. While coming back for a second run, Guptill couldn’t reach on time as wicketkeeper Jos Buttler held his nerves and thrashed the stumps before the Kiwi batter. This was the moment when England were confirmed as champions of the 2019 ODI World Cup for the first time that to in front of their home crowd at the iconic Lord's Ground. New Zealand, who were equal to England in terms of the score and had to finish as runners-up due to less boundaries
