ICC World Cup 2019 | You can’t take anything away from England, claims Daniel Vettori

ICC World Cup 2019 | You can’t take anything away from England, claims Daniel Vettori

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After everything that happened on at Lord’s on Sunday, Daniel Vettori is adamant that no one can question the effort put in by the three lions who were crowned World Champions for the very first time. Vettori singled out the likes of Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Jimmy Neesham for special praise.

England made their way to their first-ever World Cup trophy as they narrowly outplayed New Zealand in the final of this year’s ICC World Cup at Lord’s on Sunday. Undoubtedly, this was the most hotly-contested final in the tournament’s history as the two teams couldn’t be separated after 100 overs. They remained tied at the end of the super over stage too but England were declared winners after they scored more boundaries as compared to the Black Caps.

While many questioned whether England were actually deserving of all the praise directed to them, former New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori was quick to assert that the three lions were definitely worthy of all the accolades.

"You can’t take anything away from England. A couple of things went their way towards the end of the game but they were under an immense amount of pressure for the last few weeks of the tournament.

"They stood up and dominated, they beat the three other semi-finalists in successive games to reach the final and you can’t underestimate that type of performance," Vettori wrote in his column for Scroll.in.

Vettori, who represented New Zealand in 295 ODIs and 113 Test matches, added that the Kiwi side led by Kane Williamson deserves a lot of credit for going so far in the tournament. The former RCB coach singled out the likes of Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Jimmy Neesham for special praise.

"New Zealand played very well in that final – they barely did anything wrong and in that seems unfair to be talking about them as a losing side. So for them it’s about celebrating the brilliance of their game and there was plenty of it. The catches in the outfield were superb. Matt Henry, with the new ball, was fantastic and so was Colin de Grandhomme to put together a spell of 1/25 in a World Cup final shouldn’t be overlooked.

"Jimmy Neesham did a great job, Lockie Ferguson was among the wickets, Tom Latham played really well with the bat – there are far more positives than negatives to take from this game and the performance. It’s a time to celebrate what went right and not focus too heavily on what went wrong. New Zealand have shown themselves to have the fight but there’s plenty to notice in the skill as well, their talent in pressure moments is incredible and they’ve shown that in so many games through the tournament, not least against India," the former New Zealand captain added.

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