Even though England have won the first ever 50 over World Cup trophy in their history, the cricket fraternity is largely divided on the outcome. After most unexpected result on Sunday at Lords, Cricketers, current and former, shared New Zealand’s pain on losing the title on boundary count with many of them asking for a “serious look” into the rule, slammed as “absurd”.
Now Arjuna Ranatunga, the greatest ever captain in Sri Lanka’s history, has also slammed International Cricket Council (ICC) for choosing a weird option of ‘super over’ for a World Cup final.
“It’s pathetic to decide world champion by a super over. How one can describe the result of the final, when scorecard shows that both England and New Zealand made same scores two times” Ranatunga exclusively told Cricket Age.
New Zealand lost to England at the Lord’s on Sunday due to inferior boundary count (16 in 50 overs to hosts’ 24) after both the regulation 50 overs and the Super Over ended in ties.
Opting to bat, New Zealand had put up a modest 241 for eight. In reply, England ended at the same score leading to the one-over eliminator. In the Super Over, England batted first and the duo of Ben Stokes, who kept the hosts in the game with a brilliant 84 off 98 balls, and Jos Buttler made 15.
New Zealand also ended at the same score but for the loss of one wicket, paving the way for an English victory on boundary count.
However, like others, Ranatunga too feels that New Zealand not deserves to be termed as runner up.
“It’s weird. New Zealand didn’t lose the match and England didn’t win either. So, how can you termed kiwis as runner up? They did nothing wrong to come second” the 1996 world cup winning captain added.
Ranatunga, particularly, showed his anger over ICC’s super over option to decide world cup winner. Instead, Ranatunga suggested that announcing both England and New Zealand as joint winners would have been much better decision.
“Look, World Cup is the biggest tournament of Cricket. Every team dreams and prepares for this day. So, instead of picking world cup winner on the basis of boundary count, ICC could have simply announced both the teams as joint winners” the legendary captain concluded.
