England had a date with destiny and duly delivered to bring home 'their' World Cup

Date with destiny: Super-cool England put pressure to one side and bring home ‘their’ World Cup
AP
Will Macpherson15 July 2019

There has, for this England cricket team, been a sense that Sunday's cricket World Cup Final, the greatest one-day game of them all, represented a date with destiny.

They had been meticulously preparing for this tournament for more than four years. In that time, they have changed the way ODI cricket is played, with the express intention of peaking now. When they lost to Australia at Lord’s 20 days ago — and when they were one more defeat from crashing out — Ben Stokes referred to the tournament as “our World Cup”.

The rump of the squad, with Stokes central, are in their late twenties and at, or approaching, their best. The 2015 tournament came too early for them, 2023 would be too late. England have built experience: 11 of the 15 players have more than 50 caps. It was now or never, not least because 50-over cricket is relegated to “developmental” status by the ECB next year. This was their time and they were convinced of it.

After the defeat to Australia, England had a meeting. Their psychologist, David Young, encouraged them to express their vulnerabilities. Almost to a man, they said they had shown up at Lord’s nervous and inhibited: the opposite of everything this team had stood for since they smashed New Zealand for 408 on day one of their rebirth at Edgbaston in 2015.

England followed that meeting with victories, truly brilliant ones, over India and New Zealand to make the last four. Then they trounced Australia with an extraordinary performance at Edgbaston to take them to the final for the first time since 1992. They had that date with destiny.

As England celebrated their win over Australia, coach Trevor Bayliss addressed the group — as an Australian. He told them that Aussies sneer at English triumphalism and that they think Brits over-indulge in celebration before we have actually won anything. It was a reminder that being in the final is not winning.

Captain Eoin Morgan followed Bayliss by reminding his players that there would be “plenty of people pissing in our pockets” over the following 48 hours and to block it out. This team have always enjoyed celebrating their success and have, occasionally, been prone to a little complacency after great victories, even in the course of this campaign.

Morgan was not wrong. At his press conference before the final, he was asked questions by reporters from outlets that have never previously been interested in cricket. Newspaper pullouts were published, people were talking about, reading about and being nervous about cricket more than at any time since the famous Ashes summer of 2005.

At that press conference, Morgan urged his players to embrace the experience, to express themselves — the marketing tagline the management team coined.

As England set about their chase of a very makeable 242 on their big day, things went their way. New Zealand’s bowling was gorgeous, but it took them 34 balls to get a wicket. Jason Roy should have been lbw first ball. It took Jonny Bairstow three inside edges to chop on. Things were just going England’s way.

Liam Plunkett is the old man of the group. He is 34 and made his England debut in 2005, the year cricket was last available on terrestrial TV.

When, in 2015, he returned to the ODI team for a third chapter as an international cricketer, few thought he would make it this far. But there he was in the final, taking three for 42 with his unique brand of anti-pace.

In Pictures | World Cup England Cricket players celebrate their win

1/18

On the way to his 89th ODI cap, Plunkett has seen it all.

“I don’t believe in the stars and all that stuff, but it was the first time that I felt this is meant to be,” he said.

The moment he was referring to was the ball fizzing off the back of Stokes’s bat from Martin Guptill’s perfectly serviceable throw, thus gifting England four free runs and leaving them needing three from two balls.

A ball before, Stokes had been caught by Trent Boult, only for his foot to touch the boundary rope. Six more.

Destiny? It certainly felt that way.

England managed two of those three runs, so set up a Super Over. It was, surely, the first-ever cricket match where both teams needed two runs to win from the final ball and failed. That is how wonderfully silly this game was.

As they took the field for Jofra Archer’s extra over, there was time for one last team talk. This was not England at a World Cup, whatever the sport, all nervous and caged: they walked away laughing, smiling, buzzing.

“I encouraged them to laugh because it was such a ridiculous situation, where there was quite a lot of pressure in that particular moment of the day, never mind the rest of it,” said Morgan (with the trophy, right). “It was a matter of trying to put smiles on the guys’ faces to release a bit of tension — and the guys responded brilliantly. Whether we win or lose, we have done incredible things.”

As they were out there doing incredible things one last time, they had a rival on an epic afternoon of sport: Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the longest men’s final ever at Wimbledon, eight miles south of Lord’s. But they finished up just in time, clearing the path for cricket’s most remarkable culmination.

This England team have been breaking boundaries for four years, but not everyone has known. Suddenly, somehow, they produced one last special play with the sun out and the whole country watching. Perhaps it was just their World Cup after all.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in