2019 Cricket World Cup – How England won the game of cricket Simple techniques, excellent performances, smart selection and a lot of luck help
OLUWA, the revered house of cricket, has never seen anything like it. There are no 30,000 spectators in the stadium or 8m Brits watching in homes, pubs and cricket clubs across the country. On July 14, England won the World Cup for the first time with the most amazing result imaginable. The champions have spent four years reforming their game to focus more on the one-day international (ODI) format used in the World Cup, rather than five-day Test matches or fast-paced T20 matches. They have climbed the mountain in ODI rankings. But nothing could have prepared them for Sunday’s final, which ended in two goals.
2019 Cricket World Cup
Ties are rare in ODIs because it is unlikely that each team will score exactly the same number of runs in their 300-ball innings. Before Sunday, there had been only four such incidents in 436 games in World Cup history. A breakthrough also seemed unlikely as England neared the end of their innings, struggling to chase down New Zealand’s total of 241 runs on a treacherous pitch. With nine balls to spare and 22 runs to go, according to cricket database CricViz, the hosts’ chance of winning falls to 9%, with a draw at 10%. England somehow rose to 241.
Cricket World Cup 2019: Team Of The Tournament
This improbable consistency led to the “Super-over”, an over not previously used in ODIs that gave each team six extra balls. But it led to another draw, with England winning 15 runs and taking the same score against New Zealand. In the end, the game was decided by a method the fans had never heard of: the number of boundaries scored. The Kiwis have managed just 17 to England’s 26 and therefore need a Super 16 run in the last month. They fall short, causing pandemonium in the grace arena.
For New Zealand (who also lost the final to Australia in 2015), it felt like this incredible game was settled without explanation. However, for English fans, there are some rights in reading the borders. As Gameplay pointed out before the tournament, the team’s rise from 2015 World Cup underdogs to 2019 favorites is thanks to more aggressive batting tactics. Where once English players used the willow almost as often in ODIs as in Tests, now they regularly switch for the boundary rope. This approach is represented by openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow. Neither proved to catch on in 2015, but now he has become the fastest opening batsman in ODI history. This riskier strategy occasionally fails catastrophically. England’s two biggest defeats are in the last year. But mostly the big hitters win.
This World Cup is bound to bring a lot of winning streaks, with other teams emulating England’s tactics. Some pundits predicted an ODI record of 500. But such expectations soon proved to be unrealistic. The average for the first rounds is 271, which is slightly different from the average for matches between World Cup teams over the past 18 months. (Cricket statisticians often exclude the second team’s innings in such calculations, as this value is limited to the first team’s score.). Indeed, no team even crossed 400. The first round scores in the semi-final and final were 223, 239 and 241.
Students and players have put forward many explanations for the average scores, including the difficult fields, the best bowling and the stress of the competition in the tournament. CricViz number crunchers have found evidence for the first two theories. In one of England’s last five seasons the pitches helped ODI bowlers more (judging by the change in the ball’s trajectory after the bounce). It seems the weather has helped. June was England’s coldest on record and ‘sticky goals’ famously caused the ball to slide off the ground unexpectedly. Cooler air also causes cricket balls to roll more due to less obstructed convection currents.
Gallery: England Win First Ever Cricket World Cup In Sunday’s Thrilling Final At Lord’s
This helps the work of the bowls. The “World Cup expected average” of 32.2 runs – a figure that measures how much each wicket should cost given the quality of balls delivered – was the lowest in any ODI series in England since 2014. So how did the big shot England win the bowlers’ friendly?
Four factors stand out. First, the hosts learn how to welcome you. In the two years before the World Cup, in matches where they won, England opted to bat in the first innings 89% of the time. This decision is supported by data: between 2010 and the eve of the World Cup, CricViz found that first-team bowling won around 55% of ODI matches. The main reason seems to be that pitches often become easier to hit as the day progresses, perhaps because they become drier, flatter and more predictable. In 56% of ODIs between 2015 and 2019, the surface provided more help to bowlers in the first innings than in the second. In England, this figure rises to 64%, where foggy and dewy mornings are particularly difficult for deer.
However, something strange happened in the World Cup: the pitches favored the bowling team only 41% of the time. The lack of sunny days may have caused the grass to wilt rather than dry. Of the 43 matches completed, only 15 (35%) were won by the first team ball. In the pool stages of the FIFA World Cup, England continued this way and failed to chase my points of 349 against Pakistan, 286 against Australia and, most surprisingly, 233 against a mediocre Sri Lankan team. . On the verge of a humiliating defeat, the wars changed course. They opted to first face heavyweights India and New Zealand and successfully secured 337 and 305 respectively.
Another explanation for England’s success is the handful of outstanding performances, even compared to the team’s previous high levels (see table). Four stars make significant improvements. Mr. Roy took 22 more balls in the World Cup than he had in the previous four years and scored faster in longer innings. All-rounder Ben Stokes also occupied more balls than usual. Bowling’s improvements were even greater, perhaps aided by advertisements. Stokes, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett, the three seamer bowlers, scored a few more runs than usual.
Eoin Morgan, England’s 2019 Cricket World Cup Winning Captain, Retires
The third related thing is England’s decision to select Jofra Archer. The 24-year-old Barbadian has a British father and has shown his talent in T20s overseas but was only eligible for the team just before the tournament through his British residency. (The England Cricket Board changed the eligibility period from seven years to three at the end of 2018.) Only two players at the World Cup took more wickets. Among those who bowled at least 300 deliveries, only four acceptable runs had a poor rate. His performance was better than the record of any other England footballer who could have appeared in his position. He gave the “Super Pass” that brought home the jewels.
However even the most jubilant English fan would have known the importance of the fourth element – luck. There are many events in cricket that a team cannot control, such as injuries, weather, unexpected bounces or umpiring decisions. Sometimes random changes balance each other during the match. But two happy moments went England’s way during the final of the World Cup. First over in three balls from England’s innings and nine runs needed. Mr Stokes slaps the delivery along the ground. As he dived into his crease for the second run, the ball (balled by New Zealand captain Martin Guptill) ricocheted off his bat and flew to the boundary. These ‘falling’ accidents, which were very rare, gave England six crucial runs: two scored by the batsmen by sprinting between the wickets and four for a fielding error.
But the second piece of luck was only discovered later that morning after a fierce celebration in England. The previous umpire noted that when Mr. Guptill was bowled, Mr. Stokes and his batting partner had not gone through during their second over. Therefore, only the first run with four regressions should have been considered. England would have been reduced to 240. This arbitrary rule, like the boundary count that gave England the title, would haunt New Zealanders for decades.
For many fans, however, the defining memory of the tournament will be the play of that final hour. Other times disappear quickly. Apart from the two finalists (and India, who lost to New Zealand in the semi-finals), there was always a lack of good teams. South Africa were desperate, West Indies were disappointing, Sri Lanka paled in imitation of them and Pakistan were as wildly inconsistent as ever. Afghanistan confuses itself with internal politics and foreign decisions on the ground. The format is unbalanced,