MCC to review overthrow fiasco from the World Cup final
The custodians of the sport's laws, Marylebone Cricket Club will review the infamous overthrow incident that marred an otherwise outstanding World Cup final.
“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 a statement.
The incident happened when England required nine runs off the last three balls to lift the World Cup. Ben Stokes, the batsman who was on strike at that moment played a shot to the mid-wicket region and took off for a brace. However, the throw from Martin Guptill deflected off Stokes to the boundary line when the latter was looking to dive into the crease and helped England get six crucial runs.
England eventually tied the regular match and the following super-over also ended up in a tie. This meant that England finally prevailed due to a superior boundary count (The rule used as tie-breaker) to lift their first-ever 50-over World Cup in the tournament's 44-year-long history.
While the initial confusion was surrounding the validity of the overthrow itself, closer interpretation of the rules revealed that the mistake was in the fact that England should have received only five runs instead of six.
Even renowned former umpire Simon Taufel said that this incident can be attributed to an 'error of judgement' from the on-field umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus.
Dharmasena who was in the thick of the action when all this drama was going on told that he doesn't regret his decision in the World Cup final and instead pointed out that umpires have too much to monitor at the same moment.
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