The 2019 Cricket World Cup final was a nail-biting affair with England and New Zealand playing out a cliffhanger at Lord’s. The scores were tied after the 50-overs while the super over also ended in a stalemate with both teams scoring 15 runs each. The World Cup was awarded to hosts England on the basis of scoring more boundaries in the final than the Kane Williamson-led side. There was widespread criticism for the boundary as several former cricketers lashed out at ICC for awarding a World Cup to a side on such an ordinance.

However, the win was the first time that the men’s cricket team had won the World Cup in their long history. There was a time when it looked like they will be knocked out of the competition in the round robin stage only. Eoin Morgan and Co had to win their last two league games to make it to the last four and they did exactly that by beating India and New Zealand before going on to win the World Cup.

Now, England’s wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler has come out and admitted that their win was ‘written in the stars’ while saying that he did feel sorry for the New Zealand cricket team, who lost the title despite not being outplayed in the final.

‘I did feel sorry for the New Zealanders but at the same time I was so happy that wasn’t us. It was written in the stars. It was destiny for us as a team. I talked to Moeen about this: he said we were meant to struggle. It wasn’t meant to be easy before the India game.

‘We talked about how enjoyable it would be when you have to struggle for it and fight for it.We had played in lots of series where we have blasted big scores and dominated in that way, and that is enjoyable, but to come through adversity and hardship feels even more special. That gives you so much faith that good things can happen,’ Buttler told Daily Mail.

Buttler also went on to say that he could have stopped playing cricket if England had lost the final to New Zealand. Buttler talked about how he had reached eight finals and ended up as runners-up in most of them.

“What was scaring me was if we lost, I didn’t know how I’d play cricket again. This was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a World Cup final at Lord’s. It felt like destiny and I was thinking: ‘If it doesn’t happen, I will have no motivation to pick up a cricket bat for a very long time,’” Buttler said during an interaction with Daily Mail.

“I had played in eight finals before Sunday and lost seven of them. I’d played in lots with Somerset, the Champions Trophy with England and when we lost the T20 in Kolkata and I knew how much it hurt watching the other team lift the trophy. I didn’t want to feel that pain and that regret again.”

First Published: Jul 22, 2019 14:32 IST