Now this is where the fun stuff happened. The Blackcaps bowlers began the 2019 World Cup by bowling Sri Lanka out for 136 and then pretty much carried on from there, slicing through a pretty dangerous Bangladesh batting lineup to bowl them out for 244 and then skittling Afghanistan for 172.

Well, if boundary countback was gonna be an issue then no surprises that we struggled there, considering that only three teams hit fewer boundaries than the Blackcaps throughout the entire tournament and they were: Sri Lanka (played three fewer games), South Africa (played two fewer games), and Afghanistan (played one fewer game and was only a single boundary behind our tally).

How do you even begin to comprehend something like that? To have been so close to something so special only to come away empty-handed, it’s excruciating. The Blackcaps gave it a little bit of everything and it wasn’t quite enough, not by the tiniest of margins, and I’m afraid that this one is going to sting for a very long time.

As the Blackcaps came to terms with a famous victory, Tom Latham completing a routine catch behind the stumps off the bowling of Jimmy Neesham to dismiss Yuzvendra Chahal and book a place in the World Cup final, captain Kane Williamson had a look on his face like he couldn’t quite remember if he’d put his phone on charge before he left the hotel.

Somehow the Blackcaps have made eight World Cup semi-finals including four in a row - they’ve even won two of them! - so here’s a bit of a breeze through and a history lesson all in one.