Dejected New Zealand players after the Cricket World Cup final. Photo / Photosport
Dejected New Zealand players after the Cricket World Cup final. Photo / Photosport
Liam Napier reflects on THAT final. Twenty-fours later, surely it's acceptable to rage at the world a little longer? Here are the five stages of grief as he sees them for fans - and how the Black Caps are coping themselves.
Heading to bed in a sleep-deprived haze lastnight or among the many Kiwis on this side of the world waking to a hungover state, the five stages of cricket grief may only be setting in.
1. Denial: No, wait. Boundaries, seriously?
2. Anger: At the freak overthrows, the umpiring blunders, the ludicrous ICC laws.
3. Bargaining: For more than 25 years tied ODI games were decided by who lost fewer wickets. The last World Cup had different rules. If the 2015 final had been tied, the trophy would have been shared. Remember the Lions series, anyone?
4. Depression: Don't talk to me about cricket anymore.
5. Acceptance: Not anytime soon, though there were chances to seal it. The Trent Boult catch. Mitchell Santner ducking the last ball. Pinpointing any number of instances in this mad match is not difficult. Don't worry, the Black Caps made the last two finals, they'll be there for the next, right? Four years is not that long to wait.
Had the World Cup final been decided by New Zealand's heavy group stage defeat to England in Durham, or where they finished on the table, the result may be easier to stomach.
But it wasn't. It all comes back to boundaries. A World Cup final decided on boundaries. Gets worse the more you say it.
Such a method may be fine for run-of-the-mill, bilateral ODI series, or the IPL.
But for the future validity of the ODI World Cup crown, a special format for my generation, this form of tie-breaker should never happen again.
Consult former Word Cup-winning captains, find a more credible alternative.
Play another Super Over, with different bowlers and batsmen. It's not as if Lord's has any worries paying the lighting bill. No one was leaving unless told to do so.
Martin Guptill comforted by Jimmy Neesham. Photo / Photosport
The alternative argument, which many have kindly, politely sent my way over the past 24 hours (yes, I'm aware the Black Caps made the semifinals on net run rate), is New Zealand would be crowing had the tie-breaking result been reversed.
Perhaps. You can't deny raw emotions would be very different. But that doesn't make the deciding method any less bizarre, especially for the neutral observer, of which there are billions.
Two champion teams went toe-to-toe. Both were left standing, equal on points. There is no clear, decisive winner.
Was this also a botched chance for global cricket? The greatest game in ODI history left many dumbfounded at the death as to how and why one side had beaten the other.
Boundaries? Really? Since when is that a thing?
As disbelief fades to the realisation it was not a bad dream, Kane Williamson and the Black Caps continue to be nothing but gracious in the cruellest of losses.
That's who they are, and they sit in the public eye.
Privately, they are emotionally shattered. That's the worst part of this hollow conclusion. They deserve a better system.
As the Herald headline read last night, the "Black Caps lost by zero runs". How do they begin to accept such a defeat?
"It's an odd feeling in some ways to not have a loser of the match but have a crowned winner," Williamson offered.
"It hits you in waves. You feel like for 10 minutes you forget about it and you make jokes and then it comes back to you and you go 'did that just happen, is that real?'"
England are a champion team. In a divided country Eoin Morgan preaches powerful, inclusive, unifying messages which the Dublin-born skipper, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and Jason Roy represent.
Under Morgan, England have been the best, most destructive side for the past four years.
They didn't write the World Cup fine print, merely enjoy the benefits.
On the flip side, surely it's acceptable to rage at the world a little longer.
