New Zealand were real winners of ODI World Cup 2019? Marais Erasmus accepts umpiring blunder

England won the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 final against New Zealand. However, going by Marais Erasmus’ latest comments, it looks like New Zealand were the actual winners of the match. Marais Erasmus was the on-field umpire during the ENG vs NZ final. He has recalled a chat with his fellow umpire Kumar Dharmasena that gives a new insight into the match.

There is no doubt that the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 final between New Zealand and England was the most thrilling ODI WC final ever played. The match ended in a tie in the end as England and New Zealand played a super over to decide the finalist.

The super-over also ended in a tie. However, England won the match by boundary counts after they slammed more boundaries than New Zealand in the match. The decision also backfired in the cricket fraternity later who mocked England for winning the match.

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Marais Erasmus accepts the umpiring blunder during the match

Interestingly, one of the exciting and controversial moments of the match was Martin Guptill’s throw. As Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid tried to sneak two runs, Guptill’s throw hit Ben Stokes’ bat. The ball was diverted towards the boundary and England were given four additional runs. England were allotted a total of 6 runs.

However, on-field Marais Erasmus has accepted that the umpires should have given them 5 runs instead of 6. While speaking to The Telegraph, the former South African umpire revealed a next-day chat with his co-umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

“The next morning I opened my hotel room door on my way to breakfast and Kumar opened his door at the same time and he said, ‘did you see we made a massive error?’”

“That’s when I got to know about it. But in the moment on the field, we just said six, you know, communicated to each other, ‘six, six, it’s six’ not realizing that they haven’t crossed, it wasn’t picked up. That’s it.,” he said.

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Law 19.8 of MCC rulebook

According to Law 19.8 of the MCC rulebook, “If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful 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.”

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New Zealand lost in the super over

Hence, since Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid had not crossed each other for the second run at the time of Martin Guptill’s throw, they should have been given only 1 run and 4 runs- a total of 5 runs. However, the umpires’ mistake allowed England to tie the match and take it to super over.

It is also to be noted that 1 run matters so much as the match eventually ended in a tie. If the umpires had not made a mistake, New Zealand would have won the match even before the super over.