So after 47 matches, 353 sixes, 656 wickets, 10 teams have been whittled down to the final 2. England and New Zealand will play the CWC2019 final at the Home of Cricket on Sunday. Lords will be hosting its 5th world cup cricket final and this will be England’s second final appearance there after losing by 93 runs to the mighty Windies in 1979.

Who will prevail on Sunday? Will it come down to the toss, or an amazing piece of fielding? No matter, there will be a new name on the trophy as neither side have won the cup before with England losing in 1987 and 1992 as well as 1979, New Zealand lost in the last world cup against Australia in the cathedralesque MCG. The last new name on the trophy was Sri Lanka in 1996.

Whilst the cricket powerhouses have been playing across England and Wales, other nations with aspirations have been playing in tournaments and tours across the world. Malaysia, the hosts, came out on top of the Tri-Nations tournament with Maldives and Thailand coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. The Maldives were helped by a no-result match against Malaysia which saw them awarded 1 point which kept them above Thailand – so weather does affect other countries as well as this green and pleasant land.

Zimbabwe have toured Netherlands playing T20s and ODIs – the T20s were shared but the Dutch prevailed in the ODIs. Perhaps the Dutch are heading back to the times when they humiliated England in a T20 World Cup – dark days indeed. Zimbabwe have moved on to Ireland – check out the series here.

So back to Sunday – won’t it be interesting to see what the viewing figures are like now that Channel 4 and Sky 1 will be showing the match on free to air tv? First time since 2005 – Mambo No5 or not, it’s going to be exciting.