If it were India, you would have most probably seen a marauding side rampaging a talented opposition. The stage would have been appropriate too, a World Cup final between the two of the top One Day International sides in the business. Every act would have been a headline. A celebration, a smile, the rage choking up websites and social media pages.
Instead, the first and third best teams met in the finale, with the latter labelled the ‘Underdog’, a tag New Zealand have been carrying since Dipak Patel opened the bowling for them in the 1992 edition.
Instead of a 300-run fest, idiosyncratic of modern cricket, Lord's witnessed a slow burn when New Zealand batted first, only for England to find out that the hill was a little too steep to climb.
While some sports enthusiasts passed their time with the scintillating scrap between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix and the legendary serves of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, the cricket had built up enough for fans to switch to it in the final few overs.
It was a question of firsts for both teams, raised like children in contrasting families. One the child of a superfluous nation, born with a silver spoon but seldom earned the right to showcase any of their might. The other, seemingly born in a modern household, where therapy is good, and positive feedback went a long way. And no pressure if they fail, as they always had rugby as their favourite child. That's England vs New Zealand.
It culminated in the mother of all finals. No centuries, no fifers, no 300s, no six sixes in an over, no hat tricks, no gimmicks, just cricket.
Indeed, in a matter of a few minutes, viewing figures on one OTT platform jumped from 8 million to over 12 million for the final over. Screams reserved in the homes of Indian households for Kohli's lofts and Rohit's slaps were instead spewed for Ben Stokes bludgeoning his bat.
Wickets in the death to a somewhat controversial overthrow allowed England to take the match to the Super Over. It was the mother of all ties and a final of epic proportions. Perhaps, the greatest ever. The silver spoon is now golden, and it's back to the loving arms of the parents for the other. It's all been good.
More importantly, it was entertaining cricket and India - and even Australia - wasn't part of it for once.
Feature image courtesy: AFP/Paul Ellis
