England beat New Zealand to win maiden World Cup
ITS COME HOME FOR ENGLAND! In an absolute humdinger of a match which went right to the wire, England won the World Cup for the first time in extraordinary circumstances, beating New Zealand by a tiebreaker of boundaries scored after the match was tied after regulation play and then the first Super Over in the tournament's history. (Match Highlights)
The Kiwis put on a valiant show throughout the final but the immense pressure inevitably got to them.
Both teams scored 241 after the regulation 50 overs per side, with England hitting 14 off the last over — including a six made up of two runs followed by an accidental four deflected off the bat of the diving Ben Stokes — to tie New Zealand's 241/8. (Match Scorecard)
That meant the World Cup's first ever Super Over, which fans watched with hands around their heads and with a rule explainer required on the big screens inside the home of cricket.
Stokes and Jos Buttler were England's first designated batsmen and they struck 15 — including two fours — off six balls delivered by Trent Boult.
New Zealand pair Jimmy Neesham and Guptill also struck 15 off Jofra Archer but England won courtesy of a superior boundary count — 22 to 14 — in regulation play.
While New Zealand has lost two straight finals, the country that invented cricket has finally become its world champion. England had previously lost three finals, including one at Lord's.
After Buttler collected Jason Roy's throw from deep midwicket and removed the bails with his left hand, England's players erupted in celebration — but still had an agonizing wait before the decision was confirmed by the TV umpire.
"OUT," read the message on the big screen after Guptill was shown to be about a yard (meter) out of the crease.
Buttler threw his glove into the sky and was soon mobbed by some teammates. Roy was carried on another's shoulders. Archer ran off on his own, sliding on his chest across the Lord's turf.
In the 50-over contest, England hit 24 boundaries while New Zealand had 16. And, in the Super Over, the home team blasted two fours, and Kane Williamson's team hit a six.
This was after Colin de Grandhomme produced the most economical 10-over spell in a World Cup final since Derek Pringle's 3/22 in 1992, finishing with figures of 1/21, while the Lockie Ferguson and Jimmy Neesham chipped in with three wickets each.
Earlier, Henry Nicholls (55 off 77 balls) and skipper Kane Williamson (30 off 53) added 74 runs for the second wicket after a fabulous first spell from Chris Woakes (3/37 in 9 overs) and Jofra Archer (1/42 in 10 overs) on a helpful Lord's track.
During his stay in the middle, Williamson also became the captain with most number of runs in a single World Cup, breaking the 12-year-old record of former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene who had amassed 548 runs in the 2007 edition.
While Woakes had the best figures statistically, it was the tall Liam Plunkett (3/42 in 10 overs), who used the cross-seam variations effectively to stop the Black Caps on their tracks
In their chase, England lost Jason Roy for a 17 and then saw Joe Root (7) and Jonny Bairstow (36) getting dismissed to leave the hosts reeling at 71 for three in the 20th over. It became worse when Lockie Ferguson took a brilliant diving catch running in from the deep to send back skipper Eoin Morgan (9) as England slipped to 86 for four in the 24th over.
