Tim Southee reveals what happened inside New Zealand dressing room after World Cup 2019 final defeat

The 2019 World Cup was a great tournament as spectators. However, what transpired in the final is unbelievable. New Zealand lost the final without even losing it. Strangely enough, as it sounds, the rules demanded a winner at Lord’s that day and it was England on the basis of boundary count. Months after that match, Tim Southee, who was an integral and a senior member of the squad, talked about that experience.

The former New Zealand pacer Simo Doull questioned Tim Southee about the atmosphere in the New Zealand dressing room after the World Cup 2019 final. He asked if there was a feeling of pride underlining the disappointment.

“How was the feeling afterwards in the dressing room? Obviously, there was a disappointment but was there a sense of pride? Was there someone who was able to stand up and say, ‘boys look what we have done, look whats happened today, and they will talk about this game for years and years to come’,” asked Simon during ICC’s ‘Inside Out’ show.

‘It was a strange feeling’: Tim Southee

The pacer, who wasn’t part of the semi-final or final, but was there with squad explained how it felt. He compared the tight situation in the final with that one of the semi-finals. In the semis, New Zealand beat India by 18 runs in a closely fought match. The right-arm pacer pointed out at the run out of MS Dhoni as a turning point in the game.

“It was a strange, strange, strange feeling, what we have gone through… a rollercoaster. I think even the semi-final where we had to come back for two days and millimetres in that, the run out of Dhoni and you sort of think we got through on the skin of our teeth. And we sort of we were in a position in the final,” said Southee.

The New Zealander admitted that it was a great game of cricket. However, he also said that it is hard for any player to look at it like as they had come quite close to winning the World Cup. He called the match a spectacle if emotions were peeled off the surface.

“We got some runs on the board, and I guess there is a number of things you look back on. It was just a crazy day as you said, if you peel a little back and only remove the emotion of being caught up and what actually happened, which is hard to do for us players but then if you are able to do it and you think what it did for the game and as you say it was a spectacle,” the 31-year-old added.