Cricket World Cup 2019 : England beat New Zealand in the greatest final the world have ever seen

This turned out to be not just the greatest World Cup final of all time but one of the greatest, if not the greatest ODI match of all time. The twists and turns, ebbs and flows of this game were more thrilling than what even the most adept writer of thrillers could conjure up at the height of his creativity.

It essentially came down to Ben Stokes, a New Zealand born Englishman fighting to keep his team in the match and moving onwards to World Cup glory. England seemed headed for defeat when their captain Eoin Morgan was out thanks to a magnificent catch in the deep by Lockie Ferguson and the scoreboard read 86/4.

But then Jos Buttler, the most remarkable English ODI batsman of all time, teamed up with Stokes to develop one of the best partnership of the World Cup. Since the required run rate wasn't very high, there wasn't much risk-taking. They took singles and twos and put away the bad delivery and once Buttler was in and close to his 50, he started to play some of those outrageous strokes which make him special.

Because of their partnership, the required run-rate didn't get out of control and remained under 7/over. But after getting to his fifty, he wanted to take control of the game fully and in attempting a big stroke, he gave his wicket away. Tim Southee, the substitute on the field took a brilliant catch.

This opened the floodgates as wickets started falling at one end but Stokes, the fighter that he is, wasn't going to give up. He kept fighting and eventually got his team into a situation where they needed 34 off 3 overs. In the 48th over, the match seemed over when Stokes went for a big hit and the ball seemed to be heading towards Trent Boult at wide long-on. He took the catch but didn't realise how close he was to the boundary. He took one step back and stepped on the rope. Martin Guptill was close to Boult and if only the latter could have thrown the ball to him, New Zealand would have secured the World Cup there and then. But Stokes survived.

Jimmy Neesham and Martin Guptill came out to chase the target and when Neesham flicked Jofra Archer over the leg side for six, it seemed the Kiwis were once again on their way to glory. However, Archer, the new kid on the block and given a huge responsibility just a couple of months after making his international debut held his nerve. From 7 off 4, it came down to 3 off 2. Then came a single which gave the strike to Guptill who had a World Cup to forget till then. He could have overcome all his failures by just getting the two runs needed off the last ball but Archer bowled another good near-yorker and Guptill could only push it to the leg side and both batsmen, realising they had to get back for the second run charged but fell short and England finally had the cup they had been wanting for a long time.

What will England get?

Apart from the coveted ICC World Cup Trophy, Champions England will be awarded with $4 million, which according to the ICC, is the highest prize money to date along with the trophy.

From the total prize money, which is worth $10 million, $2 million will be given to runners-up and the losing semi-finalists will receive $800,000 each at the end of the tournament. The winning teams in the each league stage match will receive $40,000.