In a once-in-a-lifetime ICC Cricket World Cup Final played at Lord's between England and New Zealand, the inventors of the game won the coveted trophy for the very first time.

This was the twelfth edition of the Cricket World Cup(CWC), held in England and Wales. Ten teams participated in cricket's quadrennial event which saw 48 matches played over the course of a month and a half.

In 26 alphabets of English, we recap the tournament. We look back at the firsts in the tournament, the highs and the lows, the heroes and the zeroes, the good and the bad of Cricket World Cup 2019.

A- Anti-Corruption Unit: To combat foul play during the World Cup (WC), ICC for the first time had a dedicated Anti-Corruption officer appointed to each participating team. The officer tagged along with the team for every match from the warm-up games to the end of the competition. The official was put up in the team’s hotel and travelled with the team for the training sessions too.

B - Banners: Banners carrying controversial messages flew over various cricket stadiums during the World Cup. This prompted the ICC to request the UK government to make The Old Trafford Stadium a "No Fly Zone".

Geopolitical tensions flared, during a match between Pakistan and Afghanistan, when a plane carrying the message “Justice for Balochistan” flew over the venue. This led to fist fights between Pakistani and Afghan fans.

There was a similar incident during a game between India and Sri Lanka, when three separate banners with controversial messages were seen over Headingley, Leeds. The BCCI soon filed a complaint with the ICC. The latter, expressed regret for the incident and said, “We are incredibly disappointed this has happened again.”

C - Catches: This CWC was a spectacle of stunning catches. In the World Cup’s opening fixture between England and South Africa, Ben Stokes took what Nasser Hussain later labelled as 'one of the greatest catches of all time'. Then in the final, Lockie Ferguson took a stunner which had Ian Smith screaming 'spectacular!' In between those two catches, we had some thrilling acrobatic takes from Chris Woakes, Quinton de Kock, Sheldon Cottrell, Ravindra Jadeja, Martin Guptill, Sarfaraz Ahmed, MS Dhoni and Steve Smith to relish.

D - DRS: The 'Decision Review System' was constantly invoked because of some terrible on-field umpiring. There were cases of bad umpiring during Australia’s win over West Indies in the group stages, in both the semi-finals and in the final too. The poor umpiring highlighted the importance of DRS in the sport.

E- England: June 7, 1975 was when the Cricket World Cup’s first-ever match was played between England and India. On July 14, 2019 England lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time. It took the inventors of the sport, 44 years and 83 World Cup matches to lift Cricket’s most coveted trophy. Some suggest that England rode Eoin Morgan’s ‘Irish Luck’ but England’s class of 2019 dominated all spheres of cricket during the tournament. Joe Root scored 556 runs and took 13 catches. Jofra Archer picked 20 wickets. Morgan finished the tournament with most sixes – 22.

F - Final: England were crowned World Champions in a final that comes only once in a lifetime. The 2019 CWC final was ODI no. 4192. Of those only 38 have ended in a tie. Five of those 38 have been in World Cups. The final of the 2019 WC was the first ever to be decided in a Super Over. Even the Super Over scores were tied. While the numbers justify how bizarre the game was, purely from a cricketing point of view, it had everything. Fifties, wickets, catches, yorkers, bouncers, misfielding, run-outs, umpiring howlers, sixes, tie, Super Over, a tie in the Super Over and of course fours.

G - Goodbyes: Good bye Shoaib Malik, good bye Imran Tahir, good bye JP Duminy, good bye Hamid Hasan. Malik, Tahir, Duminy, and Hasan have already bid farewell to One Day cricket. It is only a matter of time before MS Dhoni, Lasith Malinga, Mashrafe Mortaza and Chris Gayle will hang up their boots too.

H - Hat-trick: There were two hat-tricks in the World Cup. The first one came from India’s Mohammed Shami against Afghanistan. The hat-trick made Shami only the second Indian to achieve the feat in a WC after Chetan Sharma in 1987. A few days later, Trent Boult took a hat-trick against Australia and became the first Kiwi to attain the feat in a WC.

I- Injuries: Teams grappling with injuries was a constant theme of this World Cup. Dale Steyn was ruled out of the tournament just two matches into South Africa’s campaign. West Indies played a half-fit Andre Russell before he could no longer continue and was eventually ruled out. Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar’s WC journey ended abruptly due to injuries. Afghanistan’s wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad had to fly back after a knee injury. Usman Khawaja picked up an injury in the last group game and was ruled out for Australia’s semi-final. Marcus Stoinis, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy picked up minor injuries too.

J - Jofra, Jonny, Jos, Joe, Jason and James: England cricket team seems to love the alphabet 'J'. More than one-third of the 15-man squad, had their names starting with alphabet 'J'. And all the Js, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jason Roy, James Vince of the English squad contributed to England’s success at some stage or the other. And guess what, a player who was withdrawn from the English squad at the last minute also had his name starting with 'J'. He goes by the name of Joe Denly.

K - Kane Williamson: His team was the second-best in the final, yet again justifying the saying 'nice guys finish last'. But, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson was adjudged the Player of the Tournament at World Cup 2019. The soft-spoken Kiwi captain amassed 578 runs during the tournament hitting two hundreds and two fifties along the way. Williamson shouldered a failing batting lineup and marshalled his troops brilliantly.

L- Lord’s: Before the 2019 WC final, Lord’s had seen a British Guyanese lift back to back World Cup trophies in 1975 and 1979. Then it was the center where Kapil Dev’s daredevils did the unthinkable in 1983. In 1999 Steve Waugh lifted the trophy from the iconic Lord’s balcony and kick-started the Aussie dominance which continued for eight years. Now in 2019, Lord’s played host to what is being labelled as the ‘greatest ODI ever played’. Even before the 2019 WC final, Lord’s held the record of a single stadium hosting most WC finals.

M - Mitchell Starc: Mitchell Starc had another great WC with the ball. The left-arm quick picked 27 wickets in the tournament and breaking the record of 26 scalps in a single edition previously held by his countryman Glenn McGrath. For a second consecutive World Cup Starc finished at the top of the bowling charts. That itself is a new record!

N - Net Run Rate: Ask Pakistan about it! New Zealand and Pakistan finished the group stage with an equal number of points but New Zealand stumbled into the semis only because of a superior Net Run Rate. New Zealand had an NRR of 0.175 as against Pakistan’s -0.430. Many former cricketers, including Ian Bishop and Michael Vaughan criticized the usage of NRR to determine the qualifying teams. Pakistan coach, Mickey Arthur had also asked the ICC to consider the head-to-head stats instead. Considering that Pakistan had defeated finalists England and New Zealand in the league phases of the World Cup, NRR was a harsh way to seal the fate of a team.

O - Orange Jersey: The Men in Blue moved away from their traditional Blue jersey in India’s match against England as they wore an orange-blue jersey to distinguish themselves from hosts England. "I quite like it, I think it's right up there. For me it would be eight," Kohli rated the jersey on a scale one to 10. There had been some debate with regards to the choice of orange as the dominant colour with a section of the political class accusing the Central government of trying to 'saffronise' the sport.

P - Pitches: The first 500 total in limited-overs is still due. The 400-run mark was not reached in this WC but yet pitches in the tournament were a batting paradise. In 48 matches -off which four were washed out due to rains- the 300-run mark was breached 27 times. There were 31 hundreds and 114 fifties scored during the WC. Indian pace ace and World’s top ranked bowler Jasprit Bumrah said that the pitches in the tournament were the 'flattest tracks' he has ever bowled on. Enough said!

Q- Queen Elizabeth II: The WC got the British royal seal of approval as Queen Elizabeth II met the 10 captains at Buckingham Palace in London a day before the start of the tournament. The Queen kept a close eye on the final and described the result as “a thrilling victory” for England congratulating the team on behalf of the Royal Family.

R - Rohit Sharma: The cricketing world was in awe of Rohit Sharma’s batting during the WC. Sharma did what no other batsmen had managed in the WC’s rich history, he became the first batsman to score five centuries in a single edition. Sharma was also the leading run-scorer with 648 runs. Such was his form that Sharma fell short of a mere 27 runs to overhaul Sachin Tendulkar's record tally of 673 runs scored by a batsman in a single World Cup.

S- Shakib Al Hasan: Shakib was in rousing form in the 2019 WC. Shakib’s tiger hearted effort reaped him 606 runs (third highest in the tournament) and 11 wickets. No other cricketer in the history of the sport has returned with such figures from a Cricket World Cup. Commenting on Shakib’s stellar show Harsh Bhogle rightly said that no other batsman has picked as many wickets and no other bowler has scored as many runs in a World Cup.

T- Twitter: Twitter stole some limelight from the on-field action during the course of the WC. A former cricketer turned expert labelled a current Indian cricketer as a ‘bits and pieces player’. The Indian cricketer did not hold back and called the comment a part of the expert's 'verbal diarrhoea'. Amid this to and fro, the expert also ended up blocking a former English captain on the social media platform. Twitteratis also found out that a certain English bowler during his teenage had almost predicted the course of the entire World Cup. The English bowler had predicted the World Cup, you guessed it right, where else but on Twitter!

U - Upset: Sri Lanka defeating England was the upset of the tournament. Lanka otherwise had an ordinary tournament but that win shook England. The win kept the chasing pack of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan alive in the tournament for a while and saved the tournament from the boredom of dead rubbers.

V- Virat Kohli: He is the number one ranked ODI batsman in the World. He is the modern-day chase master. He has previously broken batting records at will. He is the captain of the most talked-about cricket team in the world but in the 2019 World Cup, Virat Kohli had a dry run. He did score five fifties but hundreds that Kohli is synonymous with eluded him. When India needed a Kohi-esque innings against New Zealand in the semis, he was out on a paltry score of one.

W- Weather: If CWC 2019 will be remembered for reasons other than cricket then it would be the weather. During the initial phases of the World Cup, incessant rains washed out four games. As the tournament progressed, rains subsided and the sun came out but come the first semi-final between India and New Zealand in Manchester, it rained again. Such was the intensity that the match had to be extended to the reserve day. It was as if weather wanted to be an integral part of the tournament. Even in the final the fickle English weather had its say as the all-important toss was delayed by 15 minutes due to overnight rains.

X - X-factor: The X-factor that sealed the fate of the World Cup was cricket’s version of ‘Hand of God’. Soon after England lifted the World Cup a meme doing started doing rounds on Whatsapp. It had a picture of Ben Stokes flat on the ground with his out-stretched bat and the caption was ‘Bat of God’. With 15 required off the last four deliveries, Stoke slammed a six on the third ball. Stoke hit the next delivery to mid-wicket and came charging back for two runs. Martin Guptill's subsequent throw from the deep ricocheted off a diving Stokes' bat all the way to the boundary. England got six runs (although the number of runs is still being debated) and the odds swung in England’s way.

Y - Yorkers: One of the best deliveries of this World Cup was a yorker. In the group phase, England were in control against old rivals Australia when a perfect yorker from Mitchell Starc cleaned up Ben Stokes. Such was the ball that it led to Stokes kicking his bat in disbelief. Then there were other yorkers bowled by Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Sheldon Cottrell, Wahab Riaz and Lockie Ferguson which were a treat for fans of fast bowling.

Z- Zero to Hero: World Cup 2019 was the story of Ben Stokes going from Zero to Hero. In 2016, England were in the final of the T20 World Cup against West Indies. With 19 runs required off the last over, Stokes was smashed for four consecutive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite with England losing the Trophy. Then in 2017, Stokes was involved in a late-night street brawl for which he underwent an 11-month ordeal. Less than a year ago, he even spent a day in jail. Stokes was a zero. But come 2019, Stokes’ redemption from Zero to Hero began. From day one of the World Cup where he plucked a blinder against South Africa right until the final where he led England’s revival, Stokes was a classic example of Zero to Hero.