The thrilling final throes of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 were all about emotions – each as raw as you’ll find. (ENG v NZ HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD | FULL COVERAGE)
We watched Jofra Archer visibly sag under the weight of unimaginable pressure, Jos Buttler gleefully uproot the stumps and man of the moment Ben Stokes immediately console a broken Martin Guptill.
These scenes will be seared into the memories of the nation and so England have etched their names into the history books.
Eoin Morgan’s men have won hearts and broken records on the way: here are your 2019 Cricket World Cup heroes in numbers.
Fraught Final
The climax to the Lord’s final was a white-knuckle ride and not even England could avoid the odd slip-up.
In the final over of their run-chase, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood became the first pair of team-mates to both be run out without facing a ball in the same World Cup innings.
In the penultimate over of their bowling effort, which also featured a wicket and a crucial boundary from Matt Henry, Chris Woakes bowled a no-ball.
It seemed nothing earth-shattering at the time, but it was the first no-ball England bowled in the entire tournament.
Only one team has played a World Cup without bowling a no-ball and that was the Netherlands in 1996.
Archer Hits The Target
Archer was a revelation for the hosts – his tournament haul of 20 wickets was the highest-ever for an England player at a World Cup, surpassing Ian Botham’s 16 when they last reached the final in 1992.
The 24-year-old formed a fearsome pace bowling partnership with Mark Wood and no pair were faster across the seven weeks.
Wood’s 95.7mph delivery to Henry Nicholls in the final matched Archer’s feats from earlier in the competition, and Australia’s Mitchell Starc also reached that speed.
Consistency was one of the keys to Archer’s success and in taking at least three wickets against West Indies, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Australia he became just the fifth bowler to do so in four successive World Cup matches.
The other four bowlers to have achieved the feat are Chaminda Vaas and Brett Lee in 2003, Glenn McGrath in 2007 and Shahid Afridi across the 2007 and 2011 editions.
Field Feats
When England fielded well at the 2019 Cricket World Cup, they played well as a team and tended to win.
They were found wanting as a collective in the defeat to Pakistan at Trent Bridge, runs leaked in the field seeing their batting line-up set an unwanted run-chase record.
Before that game, only two teams had scored 300 batting second in a World Cup match and ended up losing – both in 2015, Zimbabwe in defeat to Ireland and Sri Lanka when they lost to Australia.
England scored 334-9 and still fell short, the highest-ever losing score in a run-chase at the tournament.
But their fielding was largely excellent, and Joe Root set a new record for the most catches in the field in any World Cup with 13 from 11 games played, passing Ricky Ponting’s 11 grabs back in 2003.
And James Vince set a new record for the most catches by a substitute fielder at a World Cup with five. Ravindra Jadeja took four, surpassing Kenya’s Joe Angara and Suresh Raina with three.
Batting Blitz
England’s power with the bat was a distinctive feature of their triumph and they set a record for sixes hit at a World Cup, clearing the rope 76 times and surpassing West Indies’ 68 in 2015.
Joe Root’s aggregate 556 was England’s best-ever in a single edition of the World Cup and county colleague Jonny Bairstow ended the competition with 532, a new record for a player at his first World Cup.
Indeed, Babar Azam’s 474 runs also went past the previous record of 461 set by Rahul Dravid back in 1999.
Root opened the batting in the win over West Indies – his adaptability is taken for granted, but it was the first time he’d performed the role in his 128 ODI appearances.
Only four other batsmen have batted more times before opening in the format; namely Mahela Jayawardene (269), Michael Bevan (178), Kapil Dev (166) and Carl Hooper (131).
Best Of Both Worlds
England’s title challenge was buttressed by the ability of several of their number to contribute with bat, ball and in the field, and they did so to history-making proportions.
With 3-71 and four catches against Pakistan, Chris Woakes became just the third man in ODI history to take three wickets and pouch four catches in the same match, after Hooper and New Zealand’s Chris Harris.
In addition to opening against West Indies and scoring a century, Root also took two wickets and two catches – just the second such performance in ODI history.
The first and only other was Aravinda De Silva’s inspired display to lead Sri Lanka to victory in the 1996 final as he made 107 not out, took 3-42 and two catches.
Moeen Ali missed out on the final and earlier in the tournament, narrowly missed out on a peculiar place in cricket history.
He scored 31 runs on his 32nd birthday against Afghanistan, nearly matching Andrew Strauss’ 34 on his 34th birthday against Ireland in the 2011 World Cup.
(With Inputs From ICC)
