Paul Ford: Black Caps have finally made history

It's bloody brilliant when the good guys finish first - and Elliott is one of those. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Opinion

As Andrew Mulligan would say, it was "absolute scenes" and "pandemonium" at the Concrete Garden of Eden at 11.05pm on Tuesday. The crowd was collectively tense, deep in squeaky bum territory. Forty thousand watched every ball, riding the tsunami of pressure as it vacillated between the New Zealanders and the South Africans.

My favourite pressure valve release was when a man in a beige onesie came in hot in the East Stand, turning in a dance exhibition for the ages to the pulsating Finnish trance track, Sandstorm.

A chorus of boos erupted every time St Abraham de Villiers made excruciating field changes, necessitated by the relentless turnover of strike between New Zealand's left and right-handed batsmen.

Then the hairiest javelin of them all, Grant Elliott, pulled out the shot of his life, terrorising The Phalaborwa Firecracker and Fanta fiend Dale Steyn with his idiosyncratic legside swish shot. It's a shot that has driven domestic bowlers nuts for a decade, and provided the exclamation mark on one of the most emotional rollercoaster run chases of all time.

It's bloody brilliant when the good guys finish first - and Elliott is one of those. He has an ego that could fit in a pencil case, and, with typical class, resisted the temptation to rub his success in his doubters' faces, opting instead to channel the passion of fans around the country.

"We've got a team that plays for each other and the 4 million people in New Zealand. That's the big picture."

As the penultimate delivery soared over the 30m circle the crowd were on their feet, heads rocked back, lungs emptying with screams of joy and relief, tears welling up, and hugs and high fives spreading like influenza through the stands.

This catharsis was surely the greatest moment in Kiwi cricketing history.

This was the moment that eclipsed the CWC achievements of some great, and not-so-great, NZ teams that have gone before.

It was magnificent to see this 2015 edition - one that has promised and delivered so much for so long - carve out its own place in history.

McCullum's men are the best we've ever had.

In some quarters, Elliott was a shock selection, a bolter from the wilderness. For me, that was always a media beat-up and talkback bollocks. The reality was that he was the most conservative option the New Zealand selectors could have plumped for - a hirsute veteran, a middle order jack-of-all-trades with a track record of delivering when the pressure was on.

Before he was the Hairy Javelin, my mate Kevin dubbed him "third party, fire and theft insurance" - the bloke you select just in case things go wrong. If Kane Williamson is there to steady the ship after Pirate McCullum has wreaked havoc, Elliott is surely the underwriter. He assesses the risk and damage, then takes the responsibility upon his shoulders.

If you're Corey Anderson or Luke Ronchi, he is the guy you want to bat with. He turns the strike over with his dabs and squirts, then shuffles across to slap the occasional delivery to and over the fence. As Bill Lawry's high-pitched nasal hysteria would put it: "Ohohohoho, that Grant Elliott, he's as cool as a cucumber."

For Kiwi fans, seeing our team in the final at the MCG is a wild fantasy come true - unexpected and wonderful.

We're massive cricket nerds at Beige HQ so we bought our CWC final tickets many moons ago, because we'd drink beer and watch cricket for eight hours at the MCG, and not care who was playing.

Now it feels like those tickets were the icing and the Black Caps making "the big dance" is the cake.

Can we pull one more miracle out of the hat? Do we dare to dream?

Yes, we can - and yes, we must.

• Paul Ford (@beigebrigade) is the co-founder of the Beige Brigade. He celebrated his third wedding anniversary with his wife at Eden Park on Tuesday night and, remarkably, is still married.