There is no doubt that we got to see one of the most exciting and tension-filled one day internationals yesterday between England and New Zealand. And this happening in the final of a tournament as huge as the ICC Cricket World Cup [2019] makes it immortal for cricket fans around the world.
The final of the most coveted cricket trophy being a tie and on top of that the Super Over also being a tie was unthinkable. In the end, I felt the luck was on England’s side as they just managed to sneak through as the new World Champions courtesy that infamous overthrow that got them 6 runs.
But the revelation by the former umpire Simon Taufel today that it was an error by the onfield umpires to grant six runs to England has made me feel too bad for New Zealand. As the ball hit Stokes’ bat before he completed the second run, it should have been only five runs.
See the incident again in the video
I don’t need to spell out the importance of that one run. That error was the reason why the men in Blue were holding the World Cup at the iconic Lords balcony yesterday.
It is still understandable for the umpires to make mistakes because they had to pay attention to too many things simultaneously. But why can’t the third umpire intervene in such situations? Or why did the onfield umpires didn’t deduct the one run after watching it on the big screen?
During India’s ODI against Australia in the DLF Cup in Kulala Lumpur in 2006, umpire Mark Benson gave Sachin Tendulkar out caught behind off Glenn McGrath.
However, as soon as he saw on the big screen that the ball had clearly hit Tendulkar’s shoulder, he called him back. Commentator Ian Bishop pointed out that the umpire has the right to change his decision if he does that promptly.
See the Sachin Tendulkar incident here
So, what stopped the onfield umpires and the third umpire from deducting one run? I am sure the third umpire must have seen the numerous replays. Why not use them for minimization of errors? And to think that this one decision stopped New Zealand from lifting the trophy makes me feel bad despite me not being a New Zealander.
The umpiring has been pathetic in this World Cup. On top of that, ICC has done nothing to solve it and is tight-lipped about it. In fact, they also went ahead and appointed Kumara Dharmasena as the umpire in the final despite his dismal run in this world cup.
But this is not the only factor where ICC messed up. Till yesterday I was unaware about this rule of the team with the most numbers of boundaries winning the match if the Super Over is a tie.
How on earth a team hitting more boundaries be declared a winner when it scored exactly the same amount of runs as the other team? Scoring the runs is important. It is irrelevant how they scored it.
A joke that is going around on social media is that England can say the won the World Cup but what if someone asks them by how many runs?
By the way, what would have happened if both teams had hit exactly the same number of boundaries? Make both the team compete in Gili Danda at the iconic Lords?
Also read: World Cup Final: Ben Stokes makes up for major slip up 3 years ago
The old saying ‘Game of cricket is the winner’ suits yesterday’s 2019 World Cup Final. The game indeed won.
But is it the ICC which has lost because of its unforgivable stupidity.
Not to forget, instead of such pressing issues, they were more concerned about the logo on Indian wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s gloves.
By: Keyur Seta
Additional reading:
Yuvraj Singh’s 3 heroic TEST innings that have been forgotten: See videos
When hearing issues stopped India from winning against England
