We have a world chamipon !

Finally, we have a world champion and its England! It was the closest game (let alone in a world cup final) one could practically have. England built the team indeed played remarkably well since their elimination in the last world cup at the group stages. It definitely reminds me of India who lost in 2007 at the league stage and then ended up becoming the champions in 2011 at home. Both had started building a team for the long term which paid off.

There was a lot of talk about the final match being decided on the basis of number of boundaries hit and the overthrows off Ben stokes bat but the fact is that everything was under the rule and no one did anything intentionally to take advantage of it against the spirit of the game (unlike Ashwin waiting for runner to leave the crease marketing ) the rule were not new and both  teams were well aware. Like any other super over New Zealand did know their target is 16 and 15 belongs to England. It's not like after the Super over was tied ICC suddenly decided to break the tie and go for counting the boundaries. People can keep doing what-if analysis but its a sport and this is how it is played. I am not sure why people saying NZ qualified over PAK just by luck and riding on their captain's performance only suddenly can accept NZ having bad luck on the final day. England probably deserves more than anyone else - they beat India in league stage and Australia in semi-final convincingly.

 All the players equally contributed from England side instead of only one player taking the lead every time unlike for example Indian team where it was probably Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumbrah all the way. If you look at the world cup stats of most runs, wickets and average etc, you will find only one Indian player somewhere and 3 to 4 English and Australian players in the top 10. That pretty much shows why other teams are vulnerable to getting knocked out on the day a particular player fails. In a good team, anyone should be able to win the match, not just one or two superstars. Even Australian team was a good composite of players right till wicket-keeper carry who won few matches down the order.

India could not really make up their mind from the selection front. Brought Vijay Shanker, he was one of the bowlers with best bowling average in this tournament but sent back as he was not effective. They brought back Pant whom they had originally left out and played him ahead of Karthik who was in the team from the beginning but as a backup of Dhoni? So Players like Dhoni's stecher gets a personal stand-by player? 

Nevertheless, it was a great final. I could not imagine a better one, played amongst any other two teams. It was great to see how Williamson and team took the defeat instead of just giving wrong messages in Media. Also, Morgan still acknowledging that its an "unfair" way of separating the teams in the final. Would the Kholis and Dhonis have done this, should they have lost in final?

Here is a great video.

Another good thing to see that England opener Roy is all up for Ashes immediately after the long awate World Cup victory, I am not sure how many "super stars" would have dones that instead of partying around .

Looking foward to Ashes and some great commentry in BBC TMS