Can England finally go all the way?

LONDON: When the last time England made it to the World Cup final, they were stunned by a resurgent Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Back then, England were the favourites to win their first World Cup. 27 years later, they would once again start as the more fancied team when they take on New Zealand in Sunday’s final at Lord’s.

When the two teams met in the league stages, England, who were then facing elimination, just cruised to a 119-run win. Since then, England have been on a roll and went on to annihilate old rivals Australia by eight wickets in Thursday’s semi-final at Edgbaston. It was a huge mismatch and the result once again underlined England’s firepower.

Things were looking completely different for England following shock defeats against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But they regrouped and won a series of games to make it to the final. Eoin Morgan, the England captain, is now urging his players to capitalise on the momentum and lift the trophy at Lord’s.

“I think we did (embrace it), absolutely. Everybody out there on the field and even in the changing room loved every ball that was bowled. There was no lack of commitment, application and we had a bit of a day out which, it’s cool when it happens like that, particularly when the bowlers bowl like that, it is awesome,” he said after England thrashed Australia in the last four stage.

“I think as a team we have learnt to enjoy ourselves, particularly days like this, even if they don’t go well. If you had offered us the position to play in a final the day after we were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup, I would have laughed at you.

“I think Sunday’s not a day to shy away from, it’s a day to look forward to, much like this. We have created the opportunity to play in a World Cup final. It will be a matter of the same again trying to produce everything that we can performance-wise but enjoy the day.”

Morgan was all praise for his bowling attack that includes the likes of Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer. “I think particularly the bowling unit (performed well). When you perform like that, you continue to take wickets, along with a little bit of luck, but we were quite persistent in the lengths that we bowled.

“We stuck to our plans, our plans managed to work, even when (Steve) Smith and (Alex) Carey started to dominate and grow in the partnership they did, we found something, an opportunity,” he said. “We didn’t drop a catch on Adil (Rashid), which is great, that allowed him to build momentum and confidence and he bowled brilliantly.”