Agony and ecstasy. That's how one can describe two back to back Sundays in New Zealand sports. They were deprived of the elusive cricket World Cup crown, thanks to an umpiring blunder, a bizarre back counting rule and a stroke of misfortune in a humdinger World Cup final that ended in two nerve-jangling ties in London on July 14.

However, a week later, on July 21, the Kiwis reached the pinnacle of netball glory when their women's team clinched a last-gasp thriller against their arch-rivals Australia to be crowned as the world champions in another English city, Liverpool.

The heartbreaking defeat of the Black Caps was followed by an edge-of-the-seat 52-51 win for the Silver Ferns in an exhilarating final that saw the Kiwis dethroning the defending champions to win their first netball World Cup title in 16 years.

The sports-loving people of the "land of the long white cloud" can now savor their latest World Cup silverware, moving on from their week-long pain of missing the coveted cricket crown by a whisker. In fact, with their all-conquering All Blacks are less than two months away from beginning their rugby World Cup title defense in Japan, the small country with almost half of the city of London's population is currently holders of four different world titles – the men's and women's rugby, the America's Cup (in yachting) and last week's Netball crown.

Incidentally, the men's Rugby title or the Web Ellis Trophy was won by the Abs in 2011 and before they successfully defended it in 2015; the most prestigious yacht race was dramatically clinched by Team New Zealand in Bermuda in 2017 while the women's rugby trophy was lifted by the Black Ferns in the same year.

But their morale-crushing defeat in the nail-biting cricket final left the entire country in the southern hemisphere crestfallen and shell-shocked for almost a week until the gloomy mood was transformed into a celebratory spirit by hard-working coach Noeline Taurua's team, led by brave-heart captain Katrina Rore.

The epic epoch-making at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena came as a redemption moment for New Zealand sports as they not only upset their cross-Tasmanian neighbors and formidable netball powerhouse Australia but also bounced back to the perch after their disastrous defeat against Malawi during their medal-less catastrophic campaign at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

However, the Kiwi women's team's netball success didn't match the monetary benefits their male counterparts from the national cricket team received despite missing the title by a run.

Kane Williamson's boys may have been awarded a bounty of 3 million U.S. dollars as runners-up while the roaring success of Rore's champion girls didn't earn a single penny as prize money from the quadrennial event, forcing Prime Minister Jacinda Arden urge the team's sponsors to reward the triumphant team.

In her recent remarks to a New Zealand-based media outlet, Arden said, I wouldn't want to call [the sponsors] out, but ultimately they're the ones that derive benefit from us being the best on the world stage."

"As a general principle, I think New Zealanders would like to see fair acknowledgment of sportspeople when they reach the top of their code, and that should include netball," she added while congratulating the netball team on The AM Show this morning.

Meanwhile, Kiwi cricket team's all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who wrote a heart-wrenching tweet of discouraging future generations of not taking up any sport after his side's failure to lift the World Cup trophy at Lord's, joined in on Silver Ferns' World Cup-winning celebrations in Liverpool a week later. The key member of the Black Caps squad, who happens to be a flat-mate of Kiwi Netball team's shooter Bailey Mes, was seen partying with his country's netball heroes after their victory in the Merseyside city in an Instagram video posted by Silver Ferns shooter Te Paea Selby-Rickit.

Even though they couldn't join the Silver Ferns in the UK during their moment of glory like the Black Caps cricketer, the All Blacks side too closely followed the Netball final match and had their own celebrations soon after touching down on the journey back from Buenos Aires. Several key members of the almost invincible rugby union side, including coach Steve Hansen, huddled around loose forward and stand-in captain Sam Cane's phone to view those tense final moments before the incredible victory.

Fresh from their hard-fought 20-16 win over Argentina, Hansen, Cane, Luke Jacobson, Angus Ta'avao, Ardie Savea and Rieko Ioane were tensely glued to the phone screen before fisting pumps at the end along with a "we got it" cry of celebration. Later, the official Twitter handle of the All Blacks posted, "We touched down back home in the nick of time to watch@SilverFernsNZwin the@NetballWorldCup! Congratulations team, you have done New Zealand proud!"

Nonetheless, their latest world title in netball has surely come as a great pain-relieving balm for the wounded Kiwis.