The World Cup final between England and New Zealand is in jeopardy with the weather forecasters predicting considerable downpour during the match.
According to weather.com, London will hover around the 14-degree Celsius mark through the day with cloudy skies and rain pouring in.
If the rains are heavy and god forbid, we don't have a result today, then for the first-time ever, the World Cup will be shared between the two finalists, as there is no reserve day for the match.
At the hallowed Lord's, England will certainly start as favourites with perhaps the most destructive 50-over batting line-up comprising Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes.
The 'Famous Five' of England's '50-50' line-up would like to ensure that they are fourth time lucky after missing out in 1979, 1987 and 1992.
They are way superior in quality from the batch of 1979 that played final against the mighty West Indies.
The legend has it that Mike Brearley (64 off 130 balls) and Geoffrey Boycott (57 off 105 balls) during their 129-run stand in pursuit of 287 off 60 overs (quite an ask in those days) were so defensive in their approach that West Indies didn't want to get them out.
In 1987, England captain Mike Gatting played the most infamous reverse sweep off his opposite number Allan Border in the history of the game which cost them the final at the Eden Gardens.
The 1992 though was more about a genius called Wasim Akram, who bowled a couple of deliveries to Ian Botham and Allan Lamb that one could dream of but would find extremely difficult to execute.
However those were the teams of different eras where Test players also played 50-over cricket. This team has Test players who are also game changers in ODI cricket with their explosive power-hitting skills.
Roy (426 runs) and Bairstow (496 runs) have been intimidating in this tournament and Trent Boult and Matt Henry would love to repeat their semi-final show in the final too.
Joe Root (549) has exactly been what England needed in the tournament, a stable man holding the middle-order yet playing his strokes. Ben Stokes has teed off whenever he got a chance and perhaps Buttler is the only who is due for a big knock.
Whatever the condition of the pitch is, England wouldn't mind bowling first as Joffra Archer (19 wickets), Chris Woakes (13 wickets) and Liam Plunkett (8 wickets) have been phenomenal.
Even Mark Wood (17 wickets), despite some inconsistencies, has been good and Adil Rashid (11 wickets) has fired in the semi-final when it mattered.
With inputs from PTI
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According to weather.com, London will hover around the 14-degree Celsius mark through the day with cloudy skies and rain pouring in.

World Cup 2019: Weather forecasts' rain in today's final between ENG-NZ

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World Cup 2019: Weather forecasts' rain in today's final between ENG-NZ

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