New Zealand

7:56 PM ET Andrew Miller at Lord’s It was a contest that could not be separated by runs scored, in regulation play nor during the Super Over, but were England inadvertently awarded one run too many during the chaotic scenes of Trent Boult’s final over to Ben Stokes? In what was later pinpointed by New

9:35 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff “Yeah, in a heartbeat,” Kane Williamson said when asked if he’d swap his Player of the Series trophy for one extra run at the end of the greatest World Cup final in history. He might have to keep that line handy again as the ICC announced another individual milestone for

9:10 PM ET “Did I sleep at all? Hmm. I did sleep. I did.” Kane Williamson talks in the dry, wry, inimitable tone of his. We are standing at arm’s length. I am trying hard to find an emotion in the man’s face. This is no ordinary man. This man, this leader of men, lost

12:13 PM ET Gary Stead, New Zealand’s head coach, has suggested that the possibility of sharing the World Cup was something that “should be considered” after his side were denied in a heartbreaking finish at Lord’s on Sunday. The teams could not be separated after 100 overs and also tied the Super Over, but England

10:06 PM ET Jarrod Kimber at Lord’s “It was just one of those things, hey”. Kane Williamson, World Cup final press conference. Over 44.5 Jos Buttler has changed how batsmen hit the ball. His golf swing power fade shots have shown that big sixes aren’t solely about how big you are. Not that he isn’t

11:12 PM ET Kane Williamson admitted it was “tough to swallow” the fact that the number of boundaries struck by each side eventually decided the World Cup winners. England and New Zealand were equal on runs after both the regulation part of the match and the Super Overs that followed, but England had scored a

4:09 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Kane Williamson finished the World Cup with 578 runs – fourth on the overall list – and took home the Player-of-the-Tournament award. Scant consolation, perhaps, for not being able to lead his team to glory in what was, arguably, the most thrilling ODI ever. He spoke to the host broadcaster

1:05 PM ET Andrew Miller at Lord’s Do you ever get the sense that no-one really rates you? To judge by the line of questioning on the eve of his biggest match in four years, Kane Williamson might have been excused for thinking that he had already lost the World Cup final (again). But, as

6:02 AM ET Trevor Bayliss has reminded the England team they “have not won anything yet”, in spite of the euphoria surrounding their crushing semi-final victory over Australia. Although Bayliss admitted England’s eight-wicket victory at Edgbaston was “extra special”, he was keen to keep his squad’s feet on the floor and their eyes focused on

8:45 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Tickets for Sunday’s World Cup final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s are being offered for resale with a mark-up of thousands of pounds, despite the ICC warning it will cancel tickets purchased via unauthorised outlets. The ICC provides its own platform on which unwanted tickets can be sold

7:20 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Martin Guptill was at deep backward square leg. And at first he didn’t quite catch where the ball was. Then he realised it was dribbling over to him. And that MS Dhoni was looking for a very difficult second run. Guptill went full sprint at the ball, picked it up

8:37 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff For the longest time – the first day if you like – it did look like New Zealand had fallen behind and India had the edge in their World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford. It turned out that the 239 for 8 they got was 18 runs too many for

11:44 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Winning the heart-stopping semi-final against South Africa in the World Cup four years ago was vastly different from the latest one at Old Trafford, but the hard scrap to beat India was extremely satisfying, Kane Williamson said after leading New Zealand into the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s. “Yeah,

1:24 PM ET “Just two games.” “A fresh start.” “It’s about how we play on the day.” These are the things Kane Williamson and New Zealand are telling themselves, ahead of their semi-final against India. Of the final four in the World Cup, New Zealand are easily the least-fancied outfit. Not only have they won

9:04 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Sri Lanka Cricket have announced a series of two Tests and three T20Is against New Zealand in August-September, with the visitors set to arrive in Colombo on August 3 and stay in the country till September 7. The Test matches will count towards the newly launched ICC Test Championship. That

8:29 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff New Zealand coach Gary Stead hopes “lady luck” starts to shine on them in the World Cup semi-final after their campaign stalled at the end of the group stage with three consecutive heavy defeats. Barring a victory by an astonishing margin for Pakistan against Bangladesh at Lord’s (more than 300

8:09 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu will play for Loughborough Lightning at the 2019 Kia Super League (KSL). She replaces the injured New Zealand allrounder Sophie Devine, who was earlier retained by the franchise. Atapattu joins West Indies’ Hayley Matthews and South Africa’s Mignon du Preez as part of the overseas

3:17 PM ET Only one team must win the match tomorrow, and that’s not New Zealand. But losing to England would mean that the World Cup’s perennial bridesmaids go to the semi-finals – and they will, barring a freakish turn of results – as the only team without a win against any of their co-passengers.

Kane Williamson won’t blast away, he will try to build a little fort out in the middle © Getty Images Big picture Anyone who has been subjected to the witless betting adverts that punctuate the cricket coverage in the UK will know, subconsciously at the very least, about “smarts”. Those are the little nuggets of

6:42 PM ET Andrew Miller at Lord’s At least the atmosphere was nicer for New Zealand. The sun shone, they dominated the early exchanges, and at the death of the game as a contest – Ross Taylor’s top-edged smear off Pat Cummins in the 32nd over of their run-chase – at least there was no

2:29 PM ET George Dobell at Lord’s Permutations, permutations… somebody spare us from permutations. Who knows, England might go a long way to doing just that on Sunday, by losing against India and placing their World Cup fate firmly into the hands of the teams around them. But for now, with the sun shining over

2:45 PM ET Melinda Farrell Close Melinda Farrell is a presenter with ESPNcricinfo Gary Stead is backing Colin Munro and Martin Guptill at the top of the order as New Zealand aim to bounce back from their first loss of the World Cup, against Pakistan. The openers have struggled to make runs since their first

9:01 PM ET Sidharth Monga Jimmy Neesham likes to call it the “fastest 47” in ODI cricket, and he’s not wrong. After having being in the funk for two years, almost having given up on cricket and then setting himself right, Neesham came back to smack 47 off 13 balls against Sri Lanka on his

Play 02:11 Pakistan 241 for 4 (Babar 101*, Sohail 68) beat New Zealand 237 for 6 (Neesham 97*, de Grandhomme 64, Shaheen Afridi 3-28) by six wicketsAs it happened It is incredible how Pakistan find ways of roaring back from hopeless situations. They were written off only a week earlier, languishing at ninth position with

5:14 PM ET New Zealand are arguably the best side when it comes to reading pitches in tournament play but on a slow Edgbaston track that turned considerably there were admissions after their loss to Pakistan that they had missed a trick by picking just one frontline spinner and omitting Ish Sodhi from the team.

  shares A semi-final spot looks unlikely for Pakistan; they wouldn’t have it any other way © Getty Images Big Picture The action shifts to Birmingham next, with New Zealand and Pakistan facing off in a game of very high stakes. It’s the seventh game for both sides. New Zealand have 11 points, and Pakistan

10:32 AM ET Sidharth Monga The nail-biting win over West Indies at Old Trafford was the kind of result that gives teams a lot of self-belief, but it has come at a significant cost for New Zealand. Their main batsman, the only one to have scored more than 200 runs at this World Cup, is

11:41 PM ET The things we remember. Carlos Brathwaite lives with the burden of three words spoken more than three years ago. “Remember the name,” screamed – justifiably – Ian Bishop into the microphone as Brathwaite hit Ben Stokes for four straight sixes in the final over of the World T20 final in Kolkata to

3:00 AM ET New Zealand 291 for 8 (Williamson 148, Taylor 69, Cottrell 4-56) beat West Indies 286 (Brathwaite 101, Gayle 87, Hetmyer 54, Boult 4-30, Ferguson 3-59) by 5 runsAs it happened We’ve had Sri Lanka, the No. 9-ranked team that came to the World Cup in utter disarray, stunning the No. 1 side

3:00 AM ET Big picture Remember Bristol, May 28? Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? In their final warm-up game before the World Cup, West Indies gave everyone a taste of what they could be at their best. A fast start, courtesy Chris Gayle. A hold-the-innings-together hundred from Shai Hope. Big hitting from