2019 Cricket World Cup

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a big tournament for men's national teams that happens every four years. It was organized by the International Cricket Council. The tournament took place between 30 May and 14 July in England and Wales. This was the fifth time England hosted the World Cup, and the third time matches were played in Wales.

Ten teams took part in the tournament, fewer than the 14 teams in the previous competition. The format was different, with all teams playing each other once in a round-robin stage. The top four teams then moved on to the knockout stage. After many exciting matches, India, Australia, England, and New Zealand were the top four teams.

England and New Zealand won their semi-final matches and met in the final at Lord's in London. The final ended in a tie, with both teams scoring 241 runs. To decide the winner, a Super Over was played for the first time ever in a World Cup match. The Super Over also ended in a tie, but England won the tournament based on a special rule about boundaries. Over 750,000 fans watched the matches live, and videos of the tournament were watched over 2.6 billion times around the world, making it the most-watched cricket competition up to that point.

Hosting

The 2019 Cricket World Cup was hosted by England and Wales. England had previously hosted the tournament four times before, in (/wiki/1975_Cricket_World_Cup), (/wiki/1979_Cricket_World_Cup), (/wiki/1983_Cricket_World_Cup), and (/wiki/1999_Cricket_World_Cup). Wales also helped host matches in 1983 and 1999.

Qualification

Main article: 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier

The 2019 World Cup had 10 teams, fewer than earlier World Cups. England, as the host, and the top seven teams in the ICC One Day International rankings on 30 September 2017 automatically qualified. These teams were Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. The last two spots were decided in the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

Some teams had to play in a qualifying tournament to earn their place. The West Indies secured their spot by beating Scotland. Afghanistan got the final spot by beating Ireland. This was the first World Cup since 1983 without Zimbabwe, and the first time Ireland didn’t qualify. No smaller cricket nations took part this time.

Venues

The list of places where the matches would be played was shared on 26 April 2018 after a meeting in Kolkata, India. At first, London Stadium was thought to be a place to play, but it was not chosen when the final list came out. All the matches were held in England, except for one venue, Sophia Gardens, which is in Wales. The big final match was set for 14 July 2019 at Lord's in London.

Squads

All the teams taking part in the 2019 Cricket World Cup had to list their players by April 23, 2019. They could swap players in their 15-member team up until a week before the tournament began. New Zealand was the first team to share their list. The oldest player was South Africa's Imran Tahir, who was 40 years old, and the youngest was Afghanistan's spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who was just 18.

Match officials

In April 2019, the International Cricket Council chose 16 umpires and six match referees to help run the tournament. One of the umpires, Ian Gould, said he would stop being an umpire after the tournament ended.

Prize money

The International Cricket Council set aside US$10 million in prizes for the tournament, the same amount as in 2015. England, the winning team, got US$4 million, while the runner-up received US$2 million. Teams that lost in the semi-finals earned US$800,000, and those that didn't go past the league stage got US$100,000. Each team that won a league match also received US$40,000.

Warm-up matches

Before the main World Cup event, teams played 10 warm-up matches from May 24 to May 28, 2019. These matches helped teams prepare, and they did not count as official games, so teams could use all their players.

• Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat.

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• Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field.

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• England won the toss and chose to field.

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• India won the toss and chose to bat.

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• West Indies won the toss and chose to field.
• The match was shortened to 31 overs per side because of rain.

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• No toss was made.
• No play happened because of rain.

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• Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat.

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• England won the toss and chose to field.

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• New Zealand won the toss and chose to field.

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• Bangladesh won the toss and chose to field.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony happened on The Mall in central London on the evening of May 29, 2019, just one day before the World Cup began. Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Shibani Dandekar hosted the event. Before the ceremony, the 10 team captains visited Buckingham Palace where they met Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry.

The ceremony included a fun 60-second challenge with special guests from each team, such as Viv Richards, Anil Kumble, Mahela Jayawardene, and Malala Yousafzai. England won this challenge, with Australia coming in second. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke brought the World Cup trophy on stage, joined by former England player Graeme Swann. The ceremony ended with the official World Cup song, “Stand By,” sung by Loryn and Rudimental.

Group stage

The first part of the tournament had all 10 teams playing each other once in a round-robin style. This made for 45 matches in total. Teams got two points for a win and one point if the game ended in a tie or was stopped early because of rain. The top four teams after all these matches moved on to the next stage.

If teams had the same number of points, the number of wins and then something called the "net run rate" decided who moved on. This format was used before in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, but that tournament had only nine teams.

The tournament started on May 30 at The Oval in London, where England played South Africa. England won that match. Other early matches saw the West Indies beat Pakistan, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka, and Australia beat Afghanistan. There were also some close games, like when Pakistan beat England by 14 runs.

Later in the tournament, Australia beat India, and England beat Afghanistan. There were many exciting matches, and some teams had to leave the tournament early. The group stage ended with India finishing at the top of the table, and New Zealand taking the last spot in the semi-finals.

Fixtures

The schedule for all the matches was announced on April 26, 2018.

Knockout stage

The knockout stage of the 2019 Cricket World Cup began with semi-finals at Old Trafford and Edgbaston. The winners of these matches moved on to the final at Lord's. Each knockout game had a reserve day. If play couldn't continue on the scheduled day, the match would resume from where it left off on the reserve day. If no play was possible on either day, the team that finished higher in the group stage would advance. If a match ended in a tie, a Super Over would decide the winner. If the Super Over was also tied, the team with more boundaries scored would win.

Australia was the first team to qualify for the semi-finals by beating England at Lord's. India qualified next by defeating Bangladesh at Edgbaston. England then secured their spot by beating New Zealand at the Riverside Ground. New Zealand was the last team to qualify after Pakistan couldn't improve their net run rate enough in their match against Bangladesh.

The first semi-final was between India and New Zealand at Old Trafford, and the second was between Australia and England at Edgbaston.

Semi-finals

The first semi-final between India and New Zealand was held at Old Trafford. New Zealand scored 239 runs, and India came close but fell short, resulting in New Zealand advancing to the final.

In the second semi-final, England faced Australia at Edgbaston. Australia scored 223 runs, and England chased down the target with eight wickets to spare, securing their place in the final.

Final

New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first, scoring 241 runs. England struggled early but fought back. In the final over, Ben Stokes helped England tie the match with a powerful performance. The game went to a Super Over, which also ended in a tie. England won the title by having more boundaries than New Zealand in both the match and the Super Over. This match is remembered as one of the most exciting in cricket history.

Statistics

India's Rohit Sharma scored the most runs in the tournament with 648 runs from nine matches, including a big 140 against Pakistan. He was just ahead of Australia's David Warner with 647 runs and Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan with 606 runs. Australia's Mitchell Starc took the most wickets, with 27, beating the old record. New Zealand's Lockie Ferguson was next with 21 wickets, and Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman and England's Jofra Archer both took 20 wickets.

Team of the tournament

The ICC announced its best team of the tournament on 15 July 2019, with Kane Williamson named as the best player and captain of that team.

Broadcasting

The ICC made deals to show the tournament on different platforms, like television, radio, and online streaming. The ICC’s own TV team worked with Sunset+Vine to create the main broadcast, as part of a big agreement for many ICC events, but not the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup or the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.

In the United Kingdom, you could watch all the live matches only on the pay TV service Sky Sports, but they also shared short highlights on the free channel Channel 4. If England made it to the final, Sky agreed to show it on Channel 4 too. In New Zealand, Sky Sport showed the final on its free channel Prime.

In India and some other countries, Hotstar had the digital rights. During a popular match between India and Pakistan, Hotstar had over 100 million people watching each day, and during the semi-final between India and New Zealand, they had a record 25.3 million people watching at the same time.

In popular culture

A television show called The Test followed the Australian national cricket team after a tricky situation with the ball. One of the episodes showed Australia playing in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.