Great Cricket World Cup Matches: When England pipped New Zealand on boundary countback in the 2019 ODI WC Final

As a cricket fan, one hopes for a close contest in World Cups, more so in a World Cup Final, but seldom do the top-billed clashes live up to the hype.

However, the New Zealand vs England ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Final played at Lord's on 14th July is one contest which certainly lived up to the billing, and how!

Why not check out England’s chances, in the CWC 2023, at cricket world cup satta before looking back at the amazing Final in 2019.

England, under Eoin Morgan, and playing at home, were the hot favourites coming into the 2019 ODI World Cup. The last two ODI World Cups had been won by the host nations as well - India in 2011 and Australia in 2015.

To their credit, England were successful in overhauling their white-ball set-up post the 2015 ODI WC debacle and had reached 400 plus scores on multiple occasions before the 2019 event. They had batting till No. 11 - Adil Rashid has 10 FC centuries! - and played a fearless brand of cricket, much to the envy of all other teams.

Blame it on the weather, the pitches, or the ball, the 2019 ODI WC did not see as many high scoring encounters as was initially expected. But, the matches were still very, very tight and made for enthralling viewing.

New Zealand, coming off a win over India in the semis, won the toss on the big day and elected to bat first. Their batters could not bring the house down but courtesy of fine hands from Henry Nicholls (55) and Tom Latham (47), they were successful in putting up a respectable total (241/8) on the board. Remember, runs on the board in big matches are always priceless.

England found themselves at 86/4 after 23.1 overs and there must have been more than a few nerves in the dressing room at that point. Thankfully for them, big match players Ben Stokes (84* off 98 balls) and Jos Buttler (59 off 60 balls) stood up for them when it mattered.

However, once Buttler was dismissed in the 45th over, with the score reading 196/5, the England lower order could not handle the pressure and the hosts kept losing wickets from the other end.

Drama unfolded in the last over with Trent Boult bowling two dot balls off the first two deliveries, with England left needing 15 off the last four balls. The tide turned as 6 & 6 came off the next two balls - one conventional, and the other one pretty non conventional.

A sensational slog-sweep over deep mid-wicket for six by Stokes was followed by the southpaw unintentionally deflecting a throw from the deep for four to go along with the two runs that were run between the wickets.

An attempt of two yielded one after Rashid was runout on the penultimate ball, but what mattered was that the talisman Stokes was still on strike for the last ball. An injured Mark Wood couldn't complete the second and scores were level at the end of 100 overs of riveting cricket in the WC final.

This was only the fifth tied match in an ODI WC. The other four are as follows:

Aus vs SA Edgbaston, 1999

SA vs SL Durban, 2003

Ire vs Zim Kingston, 2007

Ind vs Eng Bengaluru, 2011

Buttler and Stokes came out to bat for England in the Super Over and got 15, courtesy of one boundary each from both. In reply, Neesham sent the second ball (the first was a wide) off Archer's over for a six over the cow corner boundary, and into the crowd.

With two to get off the last ball to win for the Kiwis, Buttler collected the ball and whipped off the bails at the striker's end as Guptill fell short for the crucial second run despite the dive.

After the match proper was tied, the Super Over was also tied. No one would have really thought that it would come to this, which is perhaps why there was a strange boundary count back rule in place for this very scenario.

As a result, England won the World Cup on the boundary count, having hit 26 as compared to New Zealand's 17, to give us a thrilling final and a match that will be remembered for decades to come.

The New Zealand side, and skipper Kane Williamson, were applauded for the gentlemanly way in which they accepted the decision. As they say, ultimately, cricket was the real winner.

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