Picture Credit: Twitter
We are almost two years ahead of the 2019 ODI World Cup final that took place at Lord's London. Even after such a long time, it sees neither the New Zealand fans nor the players have forgotten the heart-wrenching loss to England. It is worth noting that both the sides had ended up scoring the same amount of runs in the stipulated quota of 50 overs each. This saw a Super Over taking place that too ended in a tie. However, England were adjudged the winners of the game on the virtue of boundary count, as per an infamous ICC rule.
This was not the first time when New Zealand found themselves unlucky in an ICC knockout game despite playing their best. However, the fact that a biased and unfair rule of cricket deprived them of the coveted trophy enraged the fans and experts of the game. Due to severe bashing, the ICC got compelled to scrap the rule eventually in October 2019 and introduced a rule of repeated Super Over until one team has more runs than the other.
"Whoever made the most passes wins," jokes Neesham
It seems New Zealand all-rounder James Neesham, who was at the receiving of the ICC rule at the World Cup final in 2019, hasn't yet forgotten the loss. When the Euro 2020 final game between Italy and England moved to penalties after failing to decide a winner after 120 minutes, the Kiwi player took it as an opportunity to take a hilarious jibe at ICC and its now scrapped rule.
"Why is it a penalty shootout and not just whoever made the most passes wins? ? #joking ?," said Neesham.
Italy beat England 3-2 in penalty shootout
Talking about the latter part of the Euro 2020 final, England lost to Italy in the penalty shootout. Despite leading 2-1 at one stage in penalties, the The Three Lions lost the game 2-3 to Italy. Berardi converted from the spot for Italy, before England captain Harry Kane could level things. Belotti then missed the next and Harry Maguire netted to keep England in the driver's seat. However, in the next round, Bonucci scored while Marcus Rashford missed the target. Bernarderschi then scored the third one for Italy which remained the last goal of the game as rest of the three shots were saved by the duo of Pickford and Donnarumma.