They entered the competition as one of the favourites for the tournament; they reached the semi-finals as the underdogs; made their presence felt by storming into the finals and lost out on the title by the finest of margins. England might have won the World Cup, but New Zealand deserved a fair share of the title.
Led ably by the coolest and calmest captain in the competition, Kane Williamson did everything he could to win the coveted prize for his country but luck was never with his side. Before the tournament began, there were talks of 350 being chased down, 400’s and a ridiculous 500 being scored in this World Cup. That was until Virat Kohli correctly predicted that scores of 250-260 can be defended. Of course he had to be at the receiving end of this comment as Williamson’s uber cool men were able to defend 240 in the semi-finals and nearly replicated this effort in the final only to lose out because of “Tied Super Over ICC Rule”.
“I’m not sure how they won. Was it because of boundary count?” is what Williamson said with a forced smile at the post match press conference. He was hurting from inside, you could hear it in his voice, almost choking in the middle of the conference. He had done everything his team asked for, scored 578 runs (Highest for NZ in the tournament and 4th Highest overall), marshalled his troops and won 5 of their first 6 matches (2 of those matches were won by him single-handedly), scored a half century against tournament favourites India in the semi-final on a tricky surface and lastly captained his side with near perfection. He rotated his bowlers around with absolute finesse and placed his fielders around and kept the field tight. Surely they deserved to win the tournament right?
To put things into perspective of Williamson’s and NZ’s performance this tournament, he scored 26.83% of the total runs scored by New Zealand, he scored 106 runs in a tough chase against South Africa and then scored 148 in the very next match against the West Indies when both his openers were out for 1st ball ducks; his 3 strike bowlers (Boult, Ferguson & Henry) took 52 wickets, his all rounders (Neesham & de Grandhomme) chipped in with 21 wickets, 15 of which were taken by Neesham. The stats go on and on for the New Zealand players.
One very interesting fact though is that New Zealand (a part from Afghanistan) is the only team to NOT have scored a total in excess of 300 this entire tournament. Despite this, they were able to reach the final of the tournament. Another interesting fact is that New Zealand is the only team to not have conceded a score of over 310 in this competition, the highest score being 305 against England in the group stage. Speaks volumes of their bowling attack and the amount of pressure KW was in whenever he went out to bat.
Despite all the numbers I have just mentioned, New Zealand weren’t able to win the competition. This wasn’t because of the lack of ability or that their team succumbed to pressure. It was because of pure bad luck on the day of the final. An LBW decision of Jason Roy was ruled against the Black Caps by the finest of margins, a catch by Trent Boult was declared a 6 because his foot touched the boundary cushion, the match ending in a tie and the super over also ending in a tie but the Kiwis lost out because of boundary count, the list goes on and on. But the top spot of pure bad luck occurred in the final over of the innings with England needing 9 off 3 balls. A throw from Martin Guptill deflected from Ben Stokes’ bat and went to the boundary. What ideally should have been 7 off 2 balls was now 3 off 2 balls, which eventually ended up in being a tie.
Rejoice, heart-break, pressure, mis fielding, a tie, another tie and a maiden World Cup victory. All this packed into one game. This will go down in history as one of the greatest ODI matches of all time, probably at par with the 1999 WC Semi-Final between Australia and South Africa and the 438 run chase between the same teams in 2005.
Amidst all this, one man, Kane Williamson held back his tears, congratulated his English counterparts, didn’t complain, didn’t sledge, led his team with a wide smile, collected his Player of the Tournament with a forced smile and led his troops off with nothing but admiration from the crowd. He will be turning 29 very soon, so he has a lot of cricket left in him. But I can safely say that Kane Williamson will be one of the Greatest Cricketers to have ever played the game. Back to back World Cup final defeats is painful, but New Zealand are a team which should never be taken lightly and are a force to reckon with. Nothing but respect and admiration for the Kiwis and their captain.
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