World Cup 2019: Gautam Gambhir furious after New Zealand tantalizingly fell short at the Lord’s

The Final of the 2019 World Cup turned out to be an absolute delight. At the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground, hosts England and New Zealand put forth some jaw-dropping display of cricket. Cricket was the winner, but the format of the mega event is such that only one team could have gotten their hands on the silverware. It eventually turned out to be the Eoin Morgan-led Three Lions.

Chasing a target of 241, the Brits could tie the game after 15 runs were needed with Trent Boult in the attack. The onus was on Ben Stokes to take the hosts home in the nail-biter. He played a couple of dot deliveries after which he scored 12 off the next two deliveries to make England favourites. With three runs needed off two balls, he could only score two and the game went into the Super Over.

Jos Buttler and Stokes plundered 15 runs off Boult. Jofra Archer took the ball for Morgan’s men and he was put under pressure by James Neesham, who deposited one over the cow corner. However, Archer gave only 15 runs in that over and it meant that New Zealand levelled their opponent and couldn’t reach the target. It meant that England emerged as the winners of the 50-overs tournament.

The same was for the reason that England hit a number of boundaries than the Black Caps. For the Kiwis, Martin Guptill had the task of scoring a couple off the last ball. He tapped the leather on the leg-side, but couldn’t complete the second run. Jason Roy and Buttler combined to run him out.

Gautam Gambhir slams the ICC

In the meantime, Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer, isn’t happy by any means, especially owing to the law that robbed the Kiwis of a World Cup glory. He slammed the ICC for formulating such rules. Gambhir, who scored the famous 97 in the 2011 World Cup final, congratulated both the teams for producing the awe-inspiring level of cricket at the Home of Cricket.

The retired batsman took to Twitter and wrote, “Don’t understand how the game of such proportions, the #CWC19Final, is finally decided on who scored the most boundaries. A ridiculous rule @ICC. Should have been a tie. I want to congratulate both @BLACKCAPS & @englandcricket on playing out a nail-biting Final. Both winners imo,”

Here is Gambhir’s tweet

Don’t understand how the game of such proportions, the #CWC19Final, is finally decided on who scored the most boundaries. A ridiculous rule @ICC. Should have been a tie. I want to congratulate both @BLACKCAPS & @englandcricket on playing out a nail biting Final. Both winners imo.

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) July 14, 2019