England’s flamboyance or Kiwis’ calm?

After more than a month’s excitement and drama, peppered with plots and sub-plots, rain interruptions, near-misses, heartbreaks of close defeats and a number of individual and team records, the World Cup has produced two worthy finalists in hosts England and New Zealand.

More importantly, today’s grand finale at cricket’s Mecca will present the world with new champions for the first time since Sri Lanka gatecrashed the party and won the title in 1996.

England making it to the final was no surprise as far as the pre-tournament form book was concerned. But for New Zealand to come all the way to the final was a bit of surprise despite the fact that they were losing finalists four years ago at the MCC ground in Australia.

Four years ago, England were eliminated from the group stage conceding a shock defeat against Bangladesh. Since then they have transformed into an altogether different side under the leadership of their Irish-born captain Eoin Morgan.

Their no-holds-barred approach has made them the most attractive and successful one-day team over the last four years. And a victory in the final will provide a logical conclusion to that aggressive attitude, which most of teams cherish, but seldom succeed in striking that balance between desire and execution.

Now the burning question is whether England will swagger into Lord’s today with that mindset and execute it in the middle. England have the most potent firepower at the top with Jason Roy in his destructive element.

They have got Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in particular down the order to take a total somewhere beyond what other teams could think humanly possible.

But take out these three exciting components and England are still as conventional as other teams. Roy missed two games due to injury during the World Cup and England suffered but England bulldozed five-times champions Australia in the semifinal, where Roy acted as a marauder.

For New Zealand to counter the free-flowing England attack, their opening bowlers hold the key. This is certainly not the best New Zealand team to have made a final. But they are different under ice cool captain Kane Williamson, who has not only been scoring runs heavily but also providing those steely nerves when it matters most.

Their victory against India in a nail-biting semifinal at Old Trafford was anything but a that of a team’s which is oozing self-belief in extreme adversity.

The small yet proud cricketing nation from the southern hemisphere turned up at the Word Cup reeling from the shock of the Christchurch terror attack that claimed the life of 51 Muslim worshipers.

New Zealand Prime minister Jacinda Arden won admiration across the world for the way she took the whole nation under one umbrella to overcome one of the darkest episodes in the history of an otherwise peaceful nation.

In Williamson, the Kiwis has got a down to the earth yet ruthlessly effective leader. When his teammates were huddling around him in joy after that semifinal victory against India, he was seen just smiling.

In cricket, leadership means a lot. He has so far proved to be the best of the leaders in this World Cup. So don’t be surprised if Williamson holds that glittering piece of glory instead of Morgan after the gentleman’s game is over.