World Cup Final Overthrow To Be Reviewed By MCC In September

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has announced that the overthrow incident involving Ben Stokes in the World Cup final will be reviewed in September this year. England had beaten New Zealand in the final to seal their first World Cup title. However, the historic win was marred by the overthrow incident in the final over of the game.

With nine runs needed from the last three balls, England scored six from the third-last ball in a bizarre fashion. A throw from Martin Guptill accidentally hit the outstretched bat of a diving Ben Stokes, sending the ball to the boundary. Ben Stokes was then awarded six overthrows — four for the resulting boundary and two for taking the double.

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Those six overthrows helped England tie the game as they finished on 241, the same number of runs scored by New Zealand. The super overs also ended in a tie as both the teams scored 15. England were handed the World Cup over New Zealand on the virtue of hitting more number of boundaries.

“The WCC (World Cricket Committee) discussed Law 19.8 in relation to overthrows, in the context of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final. WCC felt that the Law was clear but the matter will be reviewed by the laws sub-committee in September 2019,” the MCC said in an official statement.

Former ICC umpire Simonn Taufel, who had umpired during the 2011 World Cup final, had said that awarding six runs was a mistake.

“There was a judgment error on the overthrow. The judgment error was the timing of when the fielder threw the ball. The act of the overthrow starts when the fielder releases the ball. That’s the act. It becomes an overthrow from the instant of the throw,” Taufel had said.

According to Law 19.8, extra runs are only awarded if the batsmen have crossed when the ball is thrown. It means that England should only have received five runs off the delivery, leaving them with four to win off two balls. More importantly, Adil Rashid would have been on strike rather than Stokes. But the dust has now settled down on the controversy and all eyes are now on MCC’s review.

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