After the trophy had been presented, the medals collected, the glitter cannons fired, and the players’ families beckoned on to the pitch, England returned to their dressing room and the focus shifted. “The one thing about our team is, when we work we work hard,” Moeen Ali said. “And when we’re not working, we relax well as well.”
Moeen was one of seven members of the squad celebrating a second World Cup win. For their coach, Matthew Mott, it was a fourth. “If you could bottle that hour straight after the game and have that for the rest of your life, you’d be pretty happy,” Mott said. “For a lot of people, particularly after games like that, the relief is obvious. Once you get over that, it’s just pure joy. There was a lot of pressure coming into the game and there was a big release after it. Everyone sat back and reflected a bit and then the music came out and the boys who wanted to party partied and we all had a lot of fun. This team knows how to celebrate well.”
