'This is England': nation unites to rejoice in Cricket World Cup final win

“Incredible … Indescribable … You couldn’t make it up.”

England’s cricket players and fans have been struggling to sum up their emotions after the team won an extraordinary World Cup final against New Zealand at Lord’s.

The victory by the never-seen-before margin of “boundaries scored” came after the two teams were tied at the end of their respective 50 over innings and a penalty shootout-style super over also failed to separate them.

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The thrilling climax sent most of the 30,000 fans at the home of cricket into paroxysms of delight and the scenes of joy were mirrored across the country as celebrations spilled from homes and pubs and into the streets.

Eoin Morgan, England’s captain, said it was “the most incredible game of cricket”, and admitted that there had been nothing between the two sides.

“I’m pretty lost for words. All the hard work that’s gone in over these four years, this is where we aspired to be. To do it with such a game, I don’t think there will be another like this in the history of cricket,” he said, while also paying tribute to the New Zealanders’ fighting spirit.

Trevor Campbell from Middlesex, who was one of the lucky fans at Lord’s, said he had “never seen” anything like it.

“I did not believe it, half way through I was sure New Zealand was going to win, it was not until the last over. You could not make this up. There has never been anything like this,” the 88-year-old said.

Thousands had gathered under blue skies in front of a big screen in Trafalgar Square to watch the final, which was England’s fourth attempt to win the biggest prize in the sport after failures at the last hurdle in 1979, 1987 and 1992.

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Jonny Bennett, 26, from St Albans, watched the match in the square and joined in the celebrations afterwards at The Admiralty pub.

“The relief and the sheer joy is incredible. It was indescribable,” he said. “I think there’s just a general sense of disbelief.”

The reaction was not limited to fans. The Queen, not known for her love of the game, said in a statement issued by Buckingham Palace that she and Prince Philip had sent their “warmest congratulations” to the England team after “such a thrilling victory”.

Theresa May, the prime minister, was so happy with the result she broke into a jig and Jeremy Corbyn hailed “the most incredible result”.

However, Jacob Rees-Mogg attempted to make political capital from the victory with an off-key tweet saying that “we clearly don’t need Europe to win”. It was quickly pointed out that England did actually need Europe to win – in the form of Morgan, who is Irish.

The actor Adil Ray went a step further by rejoicing in the diversity of the England team which, along with Morgan, also features players of West Indian, Pakistani and South African descent.

“This is England and it feels bloody fantastic,” he said.

The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, joined in to by celebrating Morgan’s Dublin roots.

Away from politics, Gary Lineker tweeted: “Never seen anything like that… Cricket is coming home”.

Morgan paid tribute to “superhuman” man of the match Ben Stokes, who managed to bludgeon 15 runs from the final over of normal play to bring the scores level, a tally that included a bizarre, ricocheted six.

But the England captain also hinted that the match – which was shown by Channel 4 on free-to-air television in addition to cricket’s usual berth on Sky – could inspire a new generation of players to emulate Stokes.

“He’s really carried the team and our batting line-up,” Morgan said. “He managed to deal with the emotion and atmosphere in an incredibly experienced manner. Hopefully everyone watching at home will try to be the next Ben Stokes.”

On the same theme, Michael Vaughan, England’s 2005 Ashes-winning captain, writes in the Telegraph today that the win could change the English game forever.

“This team have made England, a Test-loving nation, embrace white-ball cricket where before we treated it as an afterthought which is why the men never won a World Cup,” he says.

“We all want to watch this side. The biggest compliment I can give them is I would want my children to play like every single one of them.”

The papers were united in celebrating England’s win. The Guardian has a picture of England’s two heroes – Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer – celebrating the win with the headline “Last-ball joy as England seal World Cup win”.

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The Times opts for a wraparound style front and back page with a beautiful image of the dramatic moment when Jos Buttler runs out Martin Guptill to seal the win.

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The Telegraph features a huge picture of the England players lifting the trophy with the headline, “Who said cricket was boring?”.

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The most popular headline of the day is “Champagne super over”, a cunning pun combining the victory celebrations and the unprecedented format of the finale which is used by the Mirror, the Star, the Metro and – more surprisingly – the FT.

The Daily Mail goes it alone with a picture of Ben Stokes kissing his wife, Clare, above a headline which reads: “Kiss that says: we’re on top of the world.”