BY KAYLA KARIM
It was one of the most entertaining matchups in the entire tournament with England and New Zealand playing in the World Cup final match and it is no doubt that the 2019 World Cup Final will go down in history. It took England 27 years to have the opportunity to play in a Cricket World Cup final and they took advantage in the match. The teams were tied after 50 overs and England was able to clinch the win in a Super Over.
New Zealand batted first reaching 241 runs in 50 overs and England was on pace to surpass them. Although England’s Ben Stokes hit an unbeaten 84 in the victory, in the final few overs they could not and tied the game leaving them to enter into a Super Over where there are six extra deliveries on each side – a similar equivalent would be a penalty shootout.
England’s Jofra Archer, a Barbados born player who decided to pursue his international career with England has made a name for himself after the successful run at the World Cup. After making a good impression at a one day game against Ireland last month, Archer was included in the World Cup squad.
After England and West Indies faced each other in early June, Windies captain Jason Holder said that he wasn’t surprised by the noise Archer was making in the international tournament.
“He’s grown up in Barbados playing cricket so what you see — what I’m seeing of Jofra doesn’t surprise me. He is one of those guys who has always had ability and talent. It is just unfortunate how things went in terms of his decision-making but he is a good talent.”
But despite the disappointment of Jason Holder, Archer was given praise by two-time World Cup winner, Viv Richards.
“I think that the individual in himself would have felt that he’s in the best place because of the way I think he was maybe treated by the West Indies personnel when he was a member of the Under-19 teams”
Up next more locally, the Global T20 Canada League will begin on July 25th in Brampton at the GAA Centre. The tournament’s first match will be between the defending champions, Vancouver Knights and the Toronto Nationals with 22 matches in total. The teams that are participating in the tournament are the Toronto Nationals, Montreal Tigers, Edmonton Royals, Vancouver Knights, Winnipeg Hawks and the Brampton Wolves. There will be some notable and familiar faces from the recent World Cup such as Chris Gayle from West Indies, Chris Lynn from Australia and New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson.
The league ends a week before the start of the ICC Americas T20 World Cup qualifier that runs from August 17th to 25th in Bermuda. It will feature the host, Bermuda as well as Canada, Cayman Islands and USA.