The finish to a trans-Tasman World Cup classic immediately had the New Zealand players thinking back to four years earlier.
Final flashbacks for heartbroken Black Caps
Even if New Zealand's opponent this time was Australia, not England, the parallels between the gut-wrenching finish to the 2019 World Cup final and their Dharamsala epic were eerie.
On Saturday, Jimmy Neesham was again on the losing side despite playing a blinder. "Actually, that (2019 final) was the first thing I thought of when I was coming off, that it's going to look very, very similar," said the allrounder whose 58 off 39 balls went in vain in Australia’s tense five-run win.
The Kiwis had needed seven from two balls. Neesham chunked a high Mitchell Starc full toss to deep mid-wicket. Just like Jos Buttler had after receiving an imperfect throw on the final delivery of the 2019 decider's super over, another England-born keeper – Australia's Josh Inglis – had to collect the ball and dive head-and-hands-first at the stumps.
Neesham had been running to the non-striker's end four years ago. Here he was the one desperately trying to make his ground. The result was the same.
"In the back of my mind, I was having flashbacks to the World Cup final when Jason Roy threw the ball (to Buttler)," said Inglis. "When I was diving, I was like, 'I've seen this before somewhere.' So that was pretty funny.
"But I was just trying to work out where the batter was in my peripheral (vision) and just collect the ball and get it to the stumps as quickly as possible."
Marnus Labuschagne had made the decisive throw. An over earlier it looked like he might've cost his team the match. He ended up winning it for them.
Again, there was a flashback to the 2019 final, except a central character was cast in a different role.
At Lord's, Trent Boult had taken a clutch catch on the boundary in the penultimate over of the match only for his foot to touch the rope. This time, again in the second-to-last over, Boult of all people was the one hitting the six. Labuschagne, perhaps duped by the ball carrying further than he anticipated in the thin mountain air, ran in too far and stood on the boundary padding as he backtracked.
The ball continued to find Labuschagne. On the first ball of the final over, he missed the bowler's end stumps when a hit would have ran Boult out. After Starc misfired a delivery down the leg-side to concede five wides, the paceman fumed as Labuschagne threw to the keeper's end instead of him on the next ball.
When the equation was reduced to nine off three with Neesham on strike, Labuschagne pulled off comfortably the best bit of fielding of the match. Most had understandably refrained from diving on the volatile HPCA Stadium outfield. Not Labuschagne, who sprinted along the leg-side boundary and risked injury by launching into a dive to stop a certain boundary.
It left Neesham needing seven from the final two balls, instead of five; the former put the game heavily in Australia's hands, the latter would have given NZ more than a sniff. Cue the match-winning play.
"He had to get rid of it as quick as possible," Inglis said of the run-out on the penultimate ball. "I thought (Labuschagne) came back really well (after) that catch that he took but was unfortunately six.
"The mindset to stop that boundary and then get that throw in like he did, it was huge for us, so fair play to Marn."
Captain Pat Cummins made special mention of Labuschagne. "Marnus, out there, throwing himself around, it's not the easiest ground here (to field on)," Cummins said. "But the way the guys threw themselves around, hung on to the catches, made a big difference."
For Neesham, the heartbreak was familiar.
"You worked for six-and-a-half hours during the day, and it comes down to potentially two deliveries," he said. "And four years ago, we worked for two months, and it came down to one delivery. It's just the nature of the game.
"On another day, one ball is different, the result's different."
Australia's 2023 ODI World Cup fixtures
October 8: Lost to India by six wickets
October 12: Lost to South Africa by 134 runs
October 16: Beat Sri Lanka by five wickets
October 20: Beat Pakistan by 62 runs
October 25: Beat Netherlands by 309 runs
October 28: Beat New Zealand by five runs
November 4: v England, Ahmedabad (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 7: v Afghanistan, Mumbai (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT
November 11: v Bangladesh, Pune, 4pm AEDT
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
2023 World Cup standings
| Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | NRR | Ded. | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
IND
|
9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.57 | 0 | 18 |
|
2
SA
|
9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.261 | 0 | 14 |
|
3
AUS
|
9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.841 | 0 | 14 |
|
4
NZ
|
9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.743 | 0 | 10 |
|
5
PAK
|
9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -0.199 | 0 | 8 |
|
6
AFG
|
9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -0.336 | 0 | 8 |
|
7
ENG
|
9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | -0.572 | 0 | 6 |
|
8
BAN
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.087 | 0 | 4 |
|
9
SL
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.419 | 0 | 4 |
|
10
NED
|
9 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | -1.825 | 0 | 4 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
T: Ties
N/R: No results
NRR: Net Run Rate
Ded.: Deductions
PTS: Total points