Today (14th July 2020) is the one-year anniversary of England’s first-ever ICC Cricket World Cup victory as they won that tournament in the 2019 edition at the Lord’s cricket ground. On this special occasion, the England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan shared his experience during that World Cup final.
On 14th July 2019, the hosts England faced New Zealand in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 at Lord’s (London). As both teams didn’t win the Cricket World Cup trophy earlier, it was surely the big day for both the sides.
The final was a very tight game as New Zealand scored 241/8 (50 overs) in the first innings while England replied with 241 all out (50 overs). Due to that tie result, the final entered to the Super Over, where England scored 15/0 and New Zealand replied with 15/1. Despite that tie result in the Super Over, England finally won that match on the boundary countback rule and secured their first-ever Cricket World Cup trophy.
Talking about that thrilling World Cup final match experience, English skipper Eoin Morgan revealed one of his moments where he felt that they were dead and buried.
Morgan said according to ESPNcricinfo, “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 …,
“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.”
The final is actually, it’s bigger than cricket: Eoin Morgan about the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019
At first, Ben Stokes secured the tie result with his incredible knock of 84 not out off 98 balls. Then, after Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes set the 15 runs on the board in the Super Over, the young fast bowler Jofra Archer ensured that the Blackcaps didn’t cross the 15 runs mark anyway. Morgan feels that the final was bigger than cricket.
He added, “The final is actually, it’s bigger than cricket. 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.”
Eoin Morgan’s next goal
Morgan has now shifted his goal to win the next two T20 World Cups. According to the schedule, Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 and India will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. Though the 2020 edition is highly doubtful due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is still in the plan due to the International Cricket Council (ICC) hasn’t postponed this tournament yet.
The English captain feels that winning both the upcoming T20 World Cups will be the bigger achievement than winning their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup trophy.
Morgan said, “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.”
England, who won their first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup trophy in the 2010 edition in West Indies, was so close to winning it for the second time under Eoin Morgan’s leadership in the 2016 edition in India, where they just lost the final against West Indies.