The 2019 World Cup final is bigger than cricket: Eoin Morgan on England’s win

Exactly one year ago on this day, the Three Lions embarked on the beginning of a new era in English Cricket. The whole of England erupted in celebration following their first World Cup win and the atmosphere was amazing! 

It took 44 years for the creators of the game to conquer their glory. On the first anniversary of England’s maiden ODI World Cup triumph, skipper Eoin Morgan recalled a minute when he felt that his team was “dead and buried” against New Zealand on that evening at Lord’s. 

The 2019 World Cup final had everything: high scoring, nail-bitting and of course a super over. When it came down to the wire, England beat New Zealand on the basis of a decisive boundary count-back rule as scores were tied even after the super over. This match can be regarded as one of the greatest finals in the history of the World Cup.

“There’s only one (moment of doubt) for me and it probably came to me the second time I watched it. Jimmy Neesham’s bowling to Ben, he bowls a slower ball, Ben hits it down to long-on and I remember the ball being in the air,” Morgan was quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“And it’s gone high and not quite as long as he’d liked and for a minute I just thought ‘That’s it, it’s over, Ben’s out, we still need 15 an over’ - that’s when I thought for a split second we were dead and buried.” In the marathon final, New Zealand had scored 241 for 8 after batting first. They then returned to bowl out England for exactly the same score, pushing the match into a super over.

The 33-year-old said, “The final (World Cup) is actually, it’s bigger than cricket,” and he has managed to watch the final three times now during this unforeseen lockdown. 

The English captain has now turned his attention towards the forthcoming T20 World Cups which is scheduled to be held in Australia and India respectively. “It’s actually propelled up as one of the highlights of a sporting day ever in British history that will be around for a very long time so it was probably more satisfying that it will continue to be like that. There hasn't been a team who have held T20 and 50-over World Cups so that would be a nice challenge. But, realistically, probably out of the next two World Cups, winning one of them would be unbelievable. To win two would be a bigger achievement than winning the 50-over World Cup. Just because both of them are away from home and would favour Australia in Australia and India in India, so you would have to win both of them to top the 50-overs win."

[With ESPN Cricinfo inputs]