Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
 

ICC World Cup 2019 final: Players were graceful irrespective of the result

It was a bizarre way of determining the final of the game's highest event, many felt. The fans and experts were not so convinced over such a way of separating the winner from the loser.

England

Bengaluru, July 16: England won their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup on Sunday when they beat New Zealand by the virtue of hitting more boundaries.

It was a bizarre way of determining the final of the game's highest event, many felt. The fans and experts were not so convinced over such a way of separating the winner from the loser (if at all there was one) and the Three Lions were even mocked as the so-called world champions.

A lot of elegance

However, amid all the controversies, it was a treat to watch how gracefully the players of the two sides conducted themselves. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was a complete gentleman when it came to handling the frustration and the subsequent questions that arose over the deflection off Ben Stokes' bat that sent the ball for four runs.

It was the moment when England came back into the game and eventually won the title. He summed up everything by saying it was something "uncontrollable". He also prayed that no side loses a game the way they did.

Stokes, who had come up with an apologising gesture on the ground after the ball hit his bat and went for four overthrow runs (England got six in all), said later that he will be apologising to Williamson for the rest of his life.

England skipper Eoin Morgan was another one who hadn't shown any excessive gesture. When he was asked about the overthrow incident, he said that was not something to celebrate or cheer and that his team could also have been at the receiving end.

There was no chaos, hard feelings or retaliatory talks after the controversy and the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was graceful enough to want a rousing welcome for her national cricketers when they return home with all glory but without the cup.

When fans protested Sachin's run out

Compare this with the incident when Sachin Tendulkar rammed into Shoaib Akhtar on the pitch to find himself short of the crease in a Test match in Kolkata in early 1999. The Indian batting maestro had made it but just when his bat had gone off because of the impact with the bowler who was standing on his way, the incoming ball hit the stumps and he was given out. The entire stadium had burst into anger and even Tendulkar had to walk out to the boundary to calm the spectators down. The Pakistan team was requested to recall Tendulkar but they declined. Eventually, the galleries had to be emptied with help of police batons to ensure that an India-Pakistan Test match ended in an empty stadium!

There is some difference between the others and us.

Story first published: Tuesday, July 16, 2019, 13:56 [IST]
Other articles published on Jul 16, 2019