A group of rueful New Zealand players touched down on home soil on Thursday (July 18), still coming to terms with the gut-wrenching defeat to England in the World Cup final. Pace bowler Trent Boult was among six Black Caps players making a low-key homecoming at Auckland airport, soaking up commiserations from a few fans and well-wishers.
The left-armer was still haunted by the deflection off Ben Stokes’s bat in the 50th over that raced to the boundary and helped send the final into a Super Over before England claimed the win on the total boundaries scored.
“It’s natural to nitpick, to wonder about all those little things and how it could have been a totally different game,” he told reporters at the airport.
“I’ve been living that last over in my mind a lot – somehow I got hit for six along the ground which has never happened before.
“To see the scores level (after the Super Over) and still lose, yeah, that was a pretty unique situation.”
“I just want to get home, walk my dog along the beach and try to forget about it but it’s gonna be a hard one to swallow for the next couple of years” he added further.
