For his sheer craziness and incredible drama, this match will be the best final I’ve ever seen.
It was a mental game, the climax was so dramatic and you have to catch your breath to grasp what actually happened. It’s hard to put into words.
When Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler were playing, it looked like England were in the lead and they worked hard to build a partnership that kept us in the game.
We were under immense pressure and they knew that these two were probably going to do most of the work.
Losing Buttler, when he looked like he was bringing the team across the line, just seemed like it was going to slip away, and you felt it should not. But they got a bit of the green’s color and played some excellent crickets in the end.
You have to feel for New Zealand, no team deserves to lose it. If you lose a close game, you’ll reach beyond anything that happens, however small.
But Stokesy was brilliant, not only in the way he played, but also in his fitness as he continued and shoved those twos and threes and then came out and did it again in Super Over.
You could see how much he wanted to get the team over the line – at times it looked as if he’d been freed from the disappointment of Kolkata and the ICC World T20 final, and I think that was his opportunity to do that To take action and turn things around for him personally.
I’m really happy for him, he really wants to do well for England and he is a real character and heartbeat of this team.
The journey that the entire team has made over the past four years and that has drawn the public’s attention has been something special. It was exciting to look through the ups and downs and we are really happy about that.
They’ve really captured everyone – people who used to play cricket and those who were not.
I had some friends who saw the finals and sent me a text message with the rules – these were people who had never seen the game and who flooded me with questions about what was going on.
These people were absolutely excited and tried to engage in the game as soon as possible.
Great credit must go to those who have made it available on terrestrial television. You could see from afar how many people captured the game, and that could only be good for our sport.
They hope it can be a moment like the 2005 Cricket Moment for Ashes for England, where everyone is talking about and fully engaging with what’s going on.
It was the perfect finale to that, people all over the world were just caught up in what was going on. Hopefully this day could be a milestone for cricket in this country.
Winning a World Cup is something you will not forget – and it is important for the boys to enjoy the moment and greatness of what they have achieved.
If the English players are something like me, they will wake up the next morning and not stop smiling in the next few days.
It’s a tremendous achievement and it’s about doing that – the whole day was repeated and repeated and you could not get away from it. You will live on the euphoria of the day for a long time.
It’s a surreal feeling, I found it very strange and very inspiring. They hear the stories of the people who were there, who they were not, where they saw it, and how it inspired them and their children.
There were a few former English players who for years tried to get their girls to play cricket, and it took them to see that we won the 2017 World Cup so they could come aboard.
After watching us, Paul Collingwood’s children played for the first time and it had taken years. These are little stories that you hear in the weeks and months after the event that really make the difference.
They are a nice little reminder of what you have done, and Eoin Morgan and the team have a lot to offer after their extraordinary performance.
