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  Sports   Cricket  15 Jul 2019  According to this ICC rule, New Zealand should have won the World Cup 2019

According to this ICC rule, New Zealand should have won the World Cup 2019

THE ASIAN AGE.
Published : Jul 15, 2019, 3:08 pm IST
Updated : Jul 15, 2019, 3:14 pm IST

New Zealand still had one run in the court and there would be no tie in the first place, a different world champion would have been crowned.

The Black Caps were so close yet so far from their maiden World Cup title, the small margins changed it all but things would have been different as per the Law 19.8. (Photo: Twitter/cricketworldcup)
 The Black Caps were so close yet so far from their maiden World Cup title, the small margins changed it all but things would have been different as per the Law 19.8. (Photo: Twitter/cricketworldcup)

The 2019 World Cup ended with a lot of tension on both sides, with England eventually lifting their maiden World Cup title at Lord's Cricket Ground.

It was a nail-biting match with drama, tension and all that a World Cup finale should have. But the results would have been something else and New Zealand would have emerged as the WC winners after all that unfolded with those last-minute hustles.

On the finals, if the cricket rule books are to be followed, there was an error on the umpiring front despite all the craziness and the Black Caps should have been titled as the champions.

As per the calculations, England needed 9 runs to win off 3 balls and Ben Stokes slammed one to deep-midwicket and hustled for a second run along with Adil Rashid and he somehow managed to complete that second run. But the throw redirected off Stokes bat to the boundary and after a deep conversation between the umpires, six runs were handed to England (2+4 overthrows). And that was the turning point bringing England right back in the game, with 3 runs needed off 2 balls.

Going through the Law 19.8, pertaining to ''Overthrow or willful act of fielder", the second run shouldn't be taken into consideration and England should have been given five runs instead of six.

The law says, "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."

The last bit of the law plays a vital role and after checking, it is confirmed that Stokes and Rashid had not crossed each other for the second run yet when the ball was released by Martin Guptill.

Before the law was pointed out, speaking about the incident Eoin Morgan said: ''I wasn't quite sure what had happened to start with because, obviously, he dived and there was dust everywhere and the ball deflected through and all the Blackcaps standing around going "What's going on?" So I was trying to figure out, did he hit it, did the keeper hit it?

"I was trying to stay in the moment. I wasn't celebrating. It is not something you celebrate or cheer, well I don't because that could be us on the other side of it, and there are margins like that today that we spoke about. We spoke about that just chatting in the outfield the finest of margins today of guys ducking balls when they could have scored or different case scenarios, stealing runs where guys should have stopped them. It does emphasize that you need to be on top of your game."

To regret the small margins was all that Kane Williamson could manage to do.

"You can't sort of look at that and think that perhaps that decided the match," he said. "There were so many other bits and pieces to that game that was so important. When it comes down to a tie, you start looking at every single delivery, don't you? It was a pretty tough pill to swallow that when, yeah, when we were looking pretty likely with Trent bowling really, really well, so one of those things."

With the nail-biting going on till the end, the match ended in a draw and went into a Super Over, surprisingly it also ended in a draw and England won the tournament on the count of hitting more boundaries during the match and the Super Over.

If there was no extra run, New Zealand still had one run in the court and there would be no tie in the first place, no one knows the result then. A different world champion would have been seen by the world.

Although there have been no comments made by the ICC on the issue yet.

Tags: 2019 icc cricket world cup, england vs new zealand, 2019 world cup final, new zealand cricket team, england cricket team