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Mike Atherton says its the 2019 World Cup Final - what's your favourite?
A match full of theatre and a Black Caps team full of grace have helped earn this year's Cricket World Cup final a match of the decade accolade.
The Times' respected cricket correspondent, former England captain Mike Atherton, didn't hesitate to hand the pulsating final at Lord's that award as he looked back on cricket's development and highlights over the past 10 years.
Atherton conceded he had a "regency bias" given England's involvement and ultimate win against New Zealand in the final but that couldn't blur the magic of the moment.
"It is hard to overlook the drama of this year's World Cup final, in which England overcame New Zealand courtesy of a boundary countback after first a tie and then a tied Super Over had left Lord's breathless and disbelieving," Atherton said in handing the match of the decade to the final, one of four categories he looked at.
"Can a one-day game ever again match the theatre of those closing moments, with Trent Boult taking what would have been a match-winning catch before stepping on the boundary rope, and with Ben Stokes deflecting a throw from the boundary to the boundary for six overthrows, which should have been five?
"And then, after all the agony, to see New Zealand's players accept the result with their customary good grace and class was a reminder of the best qualities associated with the game. It was certainly the most thrilling World Cup match staged and the best one-day game at Lord's, even if its quality throughout did not always match the dramatic finale."
Atherton named Indian superstar Virat Kohli as his player of the decade.
"With almost 5,000 more runs than the next most prolific batsman, Hashim Amla, nobody has scored more heavily in international cricket than Virat Kohli during this decade. Plenty have scored more runs in a decade (Graham Gooch's 33,269 in the 1980s remains the most), but none has done so in international cricket under the kind of glare that follows Kohli around, as captain of the world's most cricket-crazy nation."
While Australia Steve Smith might be a better batsman, Kohli was the best all-round player.
"Hard to argue, too, that anyone else commands such attention on a cricket field, whether batting, fielding or captaining. He is mesmeric to watch.
"He began the decade carrying Sachin Tendulkar around on his shoulders, after India's win in the 2011 World Cup, apprentice to the master. He finished it as the most dominant player and personality in the game, a decade that brought him 20,801 runs and 78 million followers on Twitter and Instagram."
Atherton felt the death of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes was "the moment of the decade", saying it was a "moment so shocking it forced a sport into deep introspection".
"The sight of a young, talented sportsman cut down in his prime affected me more than anything else in the past 10 years, and if I could rewind the clock and wish away one moment from a decade's cricket, it would be this," Atherton wrote in The Times.
Atherton listed the continued rise of short-form cricket as the most influential thing in the sport over the last decade.
Amidst blossoming T20 scene "batting has become more muscular; shot-making ever more inventive, fielding has reached new levels of excellence".
But it comes at a price.
"Will test cricket see out the next decade? In some countries, I'm not so sure," Atherton concluded.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/118430247/2019-world-cup-final-is-crickets-match-of-the-decade
A match full of theatre and a Black Caps team full of grace have helped earn this year's Cricket World Cup final a match of the decade accolade.
The Times' respected cricket correspondent, former England captain Mike Atherton, didn't hesitate to hand the pulsating final at Lord's that award as he looked back on cricket's development and highlights over the past 10 years.
Atherton conceded he had a "regency bias" given England's involvement and ultimate win against New Zealand in the final but that couldn't blur the magic of the moment.
"It is hard to overlook the drama of this year's World Cup final, in which England overcame New Zealand courtesy of a boundary countback after first a tie and then a tied Super Over had left Lord's breathless and disbelieving," Atherton said in handing the match of the decade to the final, one of four categories he looked at.
"Can a one-day game ever again match the theatre of those closing moments, with Trent Boult taking what would have been a match-winning catch before stepping on the boundary rope, and with Ben Stokes deflecting a throw from the boundary to the boundary for six overthrows, which should have been five?
"And then, after all the agony, to see New Zealand's players accept the result with their customary good grace and class was a reminder of the best qualities associated with the game. It was certainly the most thrilling World Cup match staged and the best one-day game at Lord's, even if its quality throughout did not always match the dramatic finale."
Atherton named Indian superstar Virat Kohli as his player of the decade.
"With almost 5,000 more runs than the next most prolific batsman, Hashim Amla, nobody has scored more heavily in international cricket than Virat Kohli during this decade. Plenty have scored more runs in a decade (Graham Gooch's 33,269 in the 1980s remains the most), but none has done so in international cricket under the kind of glare that follows Kohli around, as captain of the world's most cricket-crazy nation."
While Australia Steve Smith might be a better batsman, Kohli was the best all-round player.
"Hard to argue, too, that anyone else commands such attention on a cricket field, whether batting, fielding or captaining. He is mesmeric to watch.
"He began the decade carrying Sachin Tendulkar around on his shoulders, after India's win in the 2011 World Cup, apprentice to the master. He finished it as the most dominant player and personality in the game, a decade that brought him 20,801 runs and 78 million followers on Twitter and Instagram."
Atherton felt the death of Australian batsman Phillip Hughes was "the moment of the decade", saying it was a "moment so shocking it forced a sport into deep introspection".
"The sight of a young, talented sportsman cut down in his prime affected me more than anything else in the past 10 years, and if I could rewind the clock and wish away one moment from a decade's cricket, it would be this," Atherton wrote in The Times.
Atherton listed the continued rise of short-form cricket as the most influential thing in the sport over the last decade.
Amidst blossoming T20 scene "batting has become more muscular; shot-making ever more inventive, fielding has reached new levels of excellence".
But it comes at a price.
"Will test cricket see out the next decade? In some countries, I'm not so sure," Atherton concluded.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/118430247/2019-world-cup-final-is-crickets-match-of-the-decade
