AUCKLAND: What if it’s July 14 again. What if Lord’s is still packed. And hushed. Trembling as one of the greatest ODI finishes of all time is still unfolding.
Well, that’s the reality for most of the New Zealand players right now. Even one of their best ever players could not help but look back and wonder.
Trent Boult was on the midwicket boundary when Ben Stokes launched Jimmy Neesham in his direction. A man renowned for taking outstanding boundary catches steadied himself under the ball, then leapt up and caught it with both hands and looked stunned, as if he knew, in that moment, the game had changed.
England now needed 22 runs from nine balls. New Zealand were favourites to become world champions.
And then Boult stepped back. Right onto the boundary rope. It was just one of the many things the fast bowler continues to replay in his head.
Boult had more than made amends by bowling that 50th over and ensuring England didn’t get past New Zealand’s 241. Then in the Super Over, he kept them to 15 runs, even though both times he had to contend with Stokes hitting near yorkers to the boundary.
And quite apart from taking the burden of the entire game — and his country’s chance of winning a first World Cup — on his shoulders, he finished with 17 wickets from 10 matches, including a hat-trick against Australia. It was an immense performance.
But when asked about the final and if he would do anything differently, Boult said: “I’m sure you could appreciate it’s a nerve-wracking scenario to be a part of. A lot of people over there interested. A lot of people watching on the TV. It was an amazing stage to be on. Obviously saw what it meant for the Englishmen to get across the line. It could have been us. Unfortunately it wasn’t. No one is probably going to get closer to winning the World Cup or losing the World Cup as us.
And that brings us to the catch that wasn’t. “Obviously the priority is on the ball itself,” Boult said.