"Big mistake"- Umpire admits gifting England victory in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 final

England won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 final against New Zealand in an exciting contest that went to super over.

Umpire Marais Erasmus has admitted that he and Kumar Dharmsena made a massive error in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s, which was directly responsible for the Eoin Morgan-led team winning cricket’s most prestigious prize for the first time in history.

For those who are unfamiliar, the final of the 2019 World Cup is often recognized as one of the best cricket matches ever played. The summit clash between the hosts and New Zealand went into extra time after the match ended in a tie after 50 overs of play. Even the tiebreaker resulted in a tie, but the hosts won the game because of a dubious boundary count rule.

Both England and New Zealand were looking to win the World Cup title for the first time in history, but the Kane Williamson-led side missed out heartbreakingly.

‘Did you see we made a massive error?’- Marais Erasmus reveals Kumar Dharmasena’s words

Prior to the exciting superover, there was a lot of drama as New Zealand appeared to be on their way to victory when England received a great stroke of luck. Stokes tried a double off Trent Boult’s fourth ball of the 50th over when England needed nine runs in three balls.

The Black Caps attempted to run him out. Stokes made a full-length dive to ensure he got to the crease. At this point, Martin Guptill’s throw hit Stokes’ bat, deflecting the ball towards the boundary line.

The action completely altered the direction of the game, and England were given six runs. The umpires assumed Stokes and Adil Rashid had scored two runs, and the overthrow added four more. Erasmus later agreed that the decision was incorrect because when Guptill threw the ball, Stokes and Rashid had not crossed.

“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 at 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,” Erasmus told the Telegraph.

Law 19.8 of MCC Laws Of Cricket state clearly states that the umpires made a massive error to give England the extra run which helped them tie the game.

It says: “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.”

New Zealand didn’t raise much hue and cry despite finishing as runner-up for the second consecutive time in a World Cup final.

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