ROSS Taylor (C) plays football with his New Zealand team-mates as they take part in a training session.—AFP
And then there’s the bowling department. Jofra Archer, fast-tracked into the team just before the World Cup following a change in residency rules, mixes sheer pace with accuracy (he has more dot balls, 338, than anyone this tournament) and has struck up a great new-ball partnership with all-rounder Chris Woakes; Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood are solid first-change options; and leg-spinner Adil Rashid can be a partnership breaker in the middle over.
New Zealand remain the unassuming underdogs. With openers Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls and Colin Munro enduring a dismal World Cup, captain Kane Williamson has taken on most of the batting burden and stood up to the task.
Understated, determined and simply brilliant, Williamson is averaging a tournament-high 91.33 and challenges Virat Kohli as probably the best batsman in the world, though Australia’s Steve Smith and Root run them close.
Taylor, in next at No. 4, is New Zealand’s other key batsman but it is the team’s bowling attack that will strike most fear into the hearts of England fans who will dominate Lord’s on Sunday.
Under cloudy skies offering movement in the air, there might not be a better asset than left-arm seam bowler Trent Boult, as he showed against India in the semi-final. He will enjoy using the slope from the Pavilion End. Fellow strike bowler Matt Henry is a danger at the top of the innings, not so much at the death, while Lockie Ferguson at first change is New Zealand’s leading wicket-taker this tournament with 17.
If this World Cup is anything to go by, England’s batsmen will look to bludgeon New Zealand out of the game if they bat first. The Blacks Caps, alternatively, would likely be satisfied putting 250 runs on the board and letting their bowlers and outstanding fielders defend it with their lives.
If the past six weeks is anything to go by, much will hinge on the toss — even if the team winning it has lost four of the last five World Cup finals.
Yet both teams have such self-belief that there’s a sense little will faze them.
England are looking to complete the set of men’s World Cup wins in the country’s top team sports, after the footballers in 1966 and the rugby players in 2003. If England do win, the trophy will be lifted by an Irishman, Dublin-born Morgan, while there is a multi-cultural make-up to the side through Barbados-born Archer, South Africa-born Roy and both Rashid and Moeen Ali, with their Pakistani ancestry. There’s also the formidable Stokes, born in Christchurch, New Zealand, no less.
A win on Sunday would also complete the cricket double for England, with the women’s team winning the World Cup in 2017.
A victory for Williamson’s side would kick off what could be a memorable year for New Zealand, who are favorite to win the Rugby World Cup in Japan, starting in September.
Both teams have been in jeopardy this World Cup, with England playing knockout cricket for nearly three weeks after back-to-back league-round losses to Sri Lanka and Australia, and New Zealand squeezing through to the playoffs on net run-rate after defeats in their last three group matches — against Pakistan, Australia and England.
Yet England are in a better place now, buoyed by successive wins over India, New Zealand, and then Australia in the semi-final. Every facet of the team is firing.
New Zealand, playing on the other side of the world from home, has it all to do.
Probable teams:
ENGLAND: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood.
NEW ZEALAND: Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Ken Williamson (captain), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Marais Erasmus (South Africa).
TV umpire: Rod Tucker (Australia).
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).
Winners and runners-up of previous ICC World Cup editions:
1975 — Winners: West Indies; runners-up: Australia
1979 — Winners West Indies; runners-up: England
1983 — Winners: India; runners-up: West Indies
1987 — Winners: Australia; runners-up: England
1992 — Winners: Pakistan; runners-up: England
1996 — Winners: Sri Lanka runners-up: Australia
1999 — Winners: Australia; runners-up: Pakistan
2003 — Winners: Australia; runners-up: India
2007 — Winners Australia; runners-up: Sri Lanka
2011 — Winners: India; runners-up: Sri Lanka
2015 — Winners Australia; runners-up: New Zealand
Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2019