Kane Williamson named player of the tournament. I'm glad the world got to see what we in NZ already knew: a calm, steady, immensely skilled leader who always backs his team. He brought this side to new heights despite all its weaknesses. They played as a team much greater than the sum of their parts and the captain deserves all the praise for that.
On to the game (sigh):
What a stupid way to break a tie. I'm having some real 2004 flashbacks today. Imagine if the flames and lightning were tied after one overtime in game 7 and they awarded the cup to Tampa because they scored more goals over the series. Deciding on boundaries just seems so arbitrary. If you have to use something, why not wickers lost? Runs are runs no matter how you score them.
The sheer luck of England, just unbelievable. That overthrow 6 might be the most flukey thing I've ever seen in any sport ever. That it happened in the final over of the world cup is just so heartbreaking. And Stokes being caught on the boundary only to have Boult step on the rope (Guppy was right there, if he had unloaded just a split second earlier...) that was game over. No way England were getting 20+ runs off the last over with no recognised batsmen at the crease.
A couple of poor umpiring decisions, first with Taylor being called out when he wasn't, they Roy not being called out when he was. You could just see the frustration in the first over when Roy should have been gone but wasn't. Thankfully he didn't go on to make a big score but in a game this tight every run counts and his 17 still contributed.
Anyways, I feel so gutted about this loss. It stings. NZ cricket fans everywhere must feel a little hard done by. I imagine a lot of people aren't showing up at work today. It is now Monday morning in NZ and the game was on all night there. Proud of the effort and obviously wish the outcome was different. But gutted, so gutted.
Good job blackcaps, you showed the world some damn good cricket. Look forward to the next home summer now.
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