Auckland: New Zealand pacer Trent Boult’s plans of getting over the gut-wrenching World Cup loss to England include walking his dog along the beach but he concedes that losing the trophy on boundary-count will be hard to swallow for at least a couple of years.
Boult, who claimed 17 wickets in the showpiece and was among the star performers for the runner-ups, landed back in the country amid questions on how the Black Caps are coping after losing their second successive World Cup final.
“Well, I’m gonna go home for the first time in about four months. Probably gonna walk my dog along the beach and try and put it aside. I’m sure he won’t be too angry at me,” Boult told reporters.
“…it’s not gonna be something that disappears in the next couple of days. It’s probably something that’s gonna be hard to swallow for the next couple of years,” he said.
In the pulsating match Sunday, being called the greatest World Cup final by many, the Kiwis tied the regulation 50 overs and the super over but went down on inferior boundary count.
Boult said he has been struggling to forget the 49th over in which he took a catch of Ben Stokes off Jimmy Neesham but ended up stepping on the boundary to let the advantage slip.
“I suppose it’s just natural to nitpick and pull apart a game like that,” he said. “…you just wonder those little kind of things that went your way, or didn’t go your way or whatever, it could’ve been a totally different game. Yeah, of course, I’m living the last over throughout my mind a lot.”
“Somehow we were hit for six along the ground which has never been happened before. And then, yeah, couple of run outs, to bowl them out and to see the scores level and to lose was a pretty unique situation,” he recalled.
Does he feel cheated? The answer is a firm ‘no’.
Asked if he would he do anything differently, Boult said he doesn’t envision another team coming as close to winning or losing the Cup like his side did.
“It was an amazing stage to be on. Obviously saw what it meant for the Englishmen to get across the line. It could have been us. Unfortunately it wasn’t. No one is probably going to get closer to winning the World Cup or losing the World Cup as us,” said the 29-year-old.
Exuding humility like his captain Kane Williamson, Boult said he felt apologetic towards fans who were rooting for the quintessential ‘nice guys’ of the game.
“You see a lot of disappointment in cricketing fans around the world, not just Kiwis but a lot of supporters that wanted us to win. It’s a shame to let everyone down really. It’s hard to know that after playing 15 hours… A lot of Kiwis out there were saying ‘we felt for you’ kind of thing. Yeah don’t really know too much more to say really. Obviously we’re all hurting and yeah sorry for letting everyone down,” he said.
Recalling the 2015 final, in which the Black Caps were outplayed by Australia, Boult that loss hurts less compared to the heartbreak at Lord’s.
“Yeah, the final in 2015 was a no show in my opinion. We were outplayed from kinda the first couple of overs. Definitely didn’t hurt as much as the other day did,” he said.
PTI
