Bappu Mahmud
England captain Eoin Morgan is hungry to cap four years of toil and determination by delivering the World Cup win the country craves. There are many elements that made England the pre-tournament favourite. Pacemen Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, leg-spinner Adil Rashid and the dynamic duo of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow statistically the most successful opening pair in ODI history.
England will have a mighty chance of finally winning a trophy they have been pining for 44 years. Jason Roy was on song and hitting the ball to all corners of the field. The England opener looked relaxed and playful, giving the ball a solid treatment whenever it was in his range. If Roy stays at the wicket for 20-25 overs, England will have a mighty chance of finally winning a World Cup trophy.
With partner Jonny Baristow, the opener has given England the kind of start teams dream of. Roy and Baristow are not the only power hitters in the team. They have Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan who often take advantage of the platform the openers set to decimate bowling attacks, especially on flat tracks which they have been getting in plenty at home.
England may have improved with each game following their defeat against Australia in the middle of the tournament and are playing some of their best cricket, which makes them clear favourite in the final. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first in the World Cup final against England at Lord's, where both teams will be looking to win the tournament for the first time.
Both teams are unchanged from their semi-final victories earlier in the week, with England star Jonny Bairstow cleared to play despite sustaining a minor leg injury against Australia on Thursday. The start of the match has been delayed by 15 minutes due to some morning rain in London, but the weather is set to be fine for the rest of the day. The first ball was bowled at 3.45pm.
The new 50-overs world champions will emerge at Lord's after what many consider is a battle between England's deep batting line-up and New Zealand's incisive bowling attack. England ruthlessly destroyed five-times champions Australia to move to the cusp of their first ever World Cup title, while New Zealand's crafty bowlers defended a small total against two-times champions India in the other semifinal.
Once again New Zealand’s opening pair failed to build a big partnership, their first wicket fell in 5.2 overs when they were just 29. Woakes removed Guptill, the ball hitting wicket and Guptill had to walk, review lost. After that Williamson and Henry Nicholls tried to build a partnership. In first power-play they scored 33 for 1. Then they were looking very comfortable when Adil Rashid and Mark Wood were on attack. In twenty third over Plunkett removed Williamson. After that they were not comfortable at any stage of the innings. They lost wickets regularly. Only Henry Nicholls scored 55 for 77 balls and Tom Latham scored 47 for 56 balls. Finally they managed 241 for 8. Woakes and Plunkett took 3 wickets a piece.