'I was devastated for three days' - Shane Bond on New Zealand's heartbreaking loss in 2019 World Cup Final

The 2019 World Cup Final can be said as one of the most heartbreaking matches in the history of cricket for the Blackcaps. New Zealand lost the glory to England at the end by the boundary count parameter. The final resulted in a draw and the Super Over that succeeded also couldn’t bring out the winner. Talking about the same, New Zealand’s former cricketer Shane Bond stated that he was absolutely ‘gutted’ after the event.

It was great to see how Kiwi cricketers and their officials took the loss gracefully and moved up. This was the 2^nd consecutive time (2015 and 2019) when New Zealand stood as the runners-up in the ODI World Cup Final. Bond said that he was travelling during the 2019 final match and when the results came out, he was devastated and remained in the same state for three straight days.

Shane Bond shares how he was absolutely gutted at that moment

“I doubt if the boys would watch it (2019 World Cup final). I wouldn’t if I was involved in that game. I was on holiday (at that time). I was on my way to San Francisco airport to fly to the Netherlands. And I sat up all through the night in the USA and I was going through security and had to put my phone through security when that last ball was being bowled and had to find the result out.

“And I was gutted. I was devastated for three days. I was quiet. I knew the impact a win in the World Cup would have on our country and in the sport in our country. But I expected the reactions that we got from our players at the end of the game,” said Bond on TOI Sportscast.

The former Kiwi bowler went on to add that though he was in a sorrowful state, he was happy for the likes of Joe Root and Jos Buttler. Bond believes that these players are amazing and he shared a personal relationship with them. Bond took 259 international wickets in his career.