LONDON: Nearly a week after leading his side to their maiden World Cup title, England captain Eoin Morgan felt the result was not fair when there was so little to separate England and New Zealand in the final at Lord’s.
England were declared winners on the basis of a boundary count, after the match and the Super Over ended in ties. Taking note of the controversial finish to the World Cup final, the ICC has asked its Cricket Committee to review the tie-breaker rule. “I don’t think it’s fair to have a result like that when there’s very little between the sides,” Morgan told the Times. “I don’t think there was one moment that you could say: ‘That actually cost the game there.’ It was quite balanced.
“I’m black and white. I’m normally going: ‘I know. I was there, that happened.’ (But) I can’t stick my finger on where the game was won and lost.”
One big turning point, however, came in the final over of England’s chase. When it was looking like New Zealand were the favourites, Martin Guptill’s throw from the deep deflected off Ben Stokes’ bat to give England four extra runs in overthrows, dragging the hosts ahead in the contest.
One would assume that finishing on the right side of the result after such a cliffhanger would have made it easier for Morgan to make sense of all the drama. But the man himself doesn’t agree. “I’m not sure winning it makes it any easier,” he said. “A little bit (troubled), because there’s no defining moment that you’d say: ‘Yes, we thoroughly deserved it.’ It’s just been crazy.” I spoke to Kane (Williamson) over the last couple of days on numerous occasions and none of us has come up with a rational explanation as to the various times we gave them the game and they gave it back to us. Like me, he can’t get his head around everything.”
At the end of the conversation, though, Morgan conceded: “It would be more difficult to lose, of course.”
The morning after the World Cup final, Williamson said it would take a long time for him and New Zealand to come to terms with what had happened late afternoon on July 14, when Lord’s was transformed into a riveting theatre and everyone — players and fans — was left gasping at the finish.
“Make sense of it?” Williamson replied, when asked if he had managed to get his head around the game after some sleep. “I think that’ll take quite a bit of time actually. Such a fine line. May be the worst part is there is so much you can’t control in those situations and it still sort of eventuates the way it did. “All in all it was a real shame that the tournament was decided in the way it was after two teams went at it. And two good teams were playing a cricket game, but it was still a tie.”
Morgan had expressed similar feeling when he dropped in to the New Zealand dressing room after the final at Lord’s. Williamson had saidMorgan was “lost for words”.