England Vs New Zealand Final

A final forty-four years in the making

England had never won the World Cup, despite hosting the first three editions of the tournament and reaching three finals before 2019 without winning any of them, losing in 1979, 1987 and 1992. New Zealand had never reached a final at all until 2015, when they lost to Australia, and had done so again in 2019 under Kane Williamson, a side built around calm, methodical cricket rather than the power-hitting that had come to define one-day batting elsewhere. The two sides met at Lord's on 14 July 2019 for a final that would end up needing two tie-breaks to settle.

Williamson won the toss and chose to bat first on a pitch that turned out to be slower and lower than either side expected, making stroke play difficult all day. England had come into the tournament as favourites after several years of building a one-day side around aggressive batting throughout the order, a deliberate rebuild that followed their early exit from the 2015 World Cup. New Zealand, by contrast, had reached the final by playing to their method of disciplined bowling and canny use of conditions, a method that would be tested to its limit on a slow Lord's surface in front of a full house.

New Zealand post 241

New Zealand never found fluency against England's attack. Martin Guptill was lbw for 19, and Kane Williamson made 30 before he was caught, with Henry Nicholls the only batter to pass fifty, making 55 from 77 balls in an innings that anchored the middle overs without ever accelerating freely. Tom Latham added 47, and James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme chipped in 19 and 16 respectively down the order, but nobody found the boundaries that a Lord's final usually produces. The innings closed on 241 for 8 from fifty overs, a total that felt below par on a slow surface. Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett each took 3 wickets for England, with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood adding one apiece, a shared workload across the whole attack rather than one standout spell.

England fall behind early

England's reply started poorly. Jason Roy was caught for 17 and Joe Root for 7, and after Jonny Bairstow was bowled for 36, the total stood at 86 for 4 when Eoin Morgan, the captain, was caught for 9. England needed to recover from a position that looked close to costing them the match altogether, with half the side's recognised batting gone and New Zealand's seamers, Matt Henry and Trent Boult, finding movement off the pitch that had not been obvious in New Zealand's own innings. A crowd that had expected England's power-hitting order to overwhelm the target instead watched a side under real pressure in a World Cup final.

Stokes and Buttler rebuild

Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler steadied the innings through the middle overs, batting with control against a New Zealand attack led by Lockie Ferguson and James Neesham, who took 3 wickets each. The pair rebuilt the innings methodically rather than taking risks, working the ball into gaps and picking off singles as much as boundaries, understanding that a repeat of the top order's loose strokes would end the chase. Buttler made 59 from 60 balls before he was caught, leaving Stokes to carry the chase through the closing overs alongside the tail, with Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett both making useful runs down the order before they too were dismissed.

The final over

England needed 15 runs from the last over, bowled by Trent Boult. Stokes hit a six early in the over, and later in the same over a throw from the deep deflected off his outstretched bat as he dived to complete a second run, running away for four overthrow runs, a passage of play that was closely debated afterwards, with New Zealand's players arguing the batters should only have been credited five runs rather than six for the throw. England needed 2 runs from the final ball, and Adil Rashid and Mark Wood were both run out going for the winning run, the match ending level. New Zealand and England had each scored 241 runs, and the World Cup final was tied for the first time in the tournament's history, a scoreline that neither team, nor the crowd inside Lord's, had any real precedent for in a match of this magnitude.

The super over

Under the tournament's rules, a tied final was settled by a super over, six balls per side. Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler batted for England against Trent Boult, and Jimmy Neesham and Martin Guptill batted for New Zealand against Jofra Archer, who had made his England debut only that year and was entrusted with what turned out to be the most scrutinised over of the tournament. Both super overs finished on the same score, 15 runs, tying the match for a second time in the same day, a coincidence that neither the sport's rulebook nor its television broadcasters had planned for.

A result nobody wanted to decide a final

With the scores level twice over, the tournament's rules fell back on a countback of boundaries scored across the innings and the super over, and England were declared champions on that count. Ben Stokes, unbeaten in both the chase and the super over, was named player of the match. The rule was changed after the tournament so that a tied super over is instead replayed, over after over if needed, until one side finishes ahead. The full scorecard from Lord's, including every fall of wicket, is on this page, and the two finalists can be explored on the New Zealand and England team pages. In The Chase you can take either side into a match of your own and see if you can finish it without needing a boundary count.

Sources

• CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: 2019 World Cup final scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2020: the World Cup final at Lord's