The Cricket World Cup 2019 ended with the most scintillating fashion as one-day cricket observed its most dramatic match, the first super-over ever in the format, and amid the hangout of that pulsating experience a controversy regarding a umpiring decision in a crucial phase of the match has ignited the cricketing world.
England and New Zealand ended the match on a tie at Lord’s on Sunday and even the super over was tied, hence the count back of boundaries was needed to separate the teams, and hosts England clinched their first ever World Cup thanks to the unprecedented gauge that was used to decide the fate of a cricket match.
In the third ball of the final over during England’s chase, a throw of New Zealand fielder Martin Guptill from the deep ricocheted off English batsman Ben Stokes to the boundary. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave the verdict that the batsmen crossed for two runs and as the ball rolled beyond the boundary he awarded six runs to the batting side.
Controversy over Ben Stokes' vital knock as umpire gave England an incorrect run ?
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 15, 2019
England needed nine runs off three balls and those runs helped them comeback into the game from an unlikely situation.
However, according to Law 19.8, pertaining to "Overthrow or willful act of fielder", it would appear that England's second on-field run should not have counted, making it a total of five runs for the incident, not six.
The law states: "If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the willful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side, and the allowance for the boundary, and the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act."
"England should have been awarded five runs, not six. It's a clear mistake ... it's an error of judgment."https://t.co/lUXrQhaaxn
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) July 15, 2019
After observing the footage is was seen that the moment the ball was released by Guptill, Stokes and his partner, Adil Rashid, had not yet crossed for their second run.
Former umpire Simon Taufel, who is five-time ‘umpire of the year’ award winner of ICC, also thought that umpires had made a "clear mistake", as the batsmen had not crossed for their second run.
"They should have been awarded five runs, not six," he said to media, adding that England's Adil Rashid should have faced the second-last ball instead of Stokes as a result.
However, the Australian also defended the umpires as he believes it is part of the game.
England’s Stokes benefited from ‘clear mistake’ to earn extra run in final over, claims former international umpire https://t.co/QbmxKm58kR
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) July 15, 2019
"Unfortunately that sort of thing happens from time to time. It's a part of the game that we play," Taufel said.
"I don't wish to nitpick, just hope it never happens in such moments ever again,’ said the Australian.
