World Cup 2019 Final Controversies

ICC 2019 World Cup final was one of the best ODI game the world has ever seen. England were the number one contender to lift the trophy. Newzealand had reached the final by defeating the mighty Indian side. England were playing a different brand of cricket. They were playing with the positive intent and attacking cricket. And all of a sudden their plan backfired. While chasing just 242 runs they were 86-4 after 23 overs and were struggling. Ben Stokes somehow took the game to the final over. It was Trent Boult who had to defend 15 runs of the final over. Stokes was all set to create the history. And then Boult bowled two brilliant dot balls and went for the six on the 3rd ball. The equation came to 9 runs required of 3 balls. And then the real drama started. Stokes hit the 4th ball straight to Martin Guptill at deep mid-wicket, came back for the second run and in the process unintentionally deflected the throw to the boundary which resulted in 4 overthrow runs for England.

The equation came to just 3 runs required of 2 balls. But the game ended in a tie as on the next 2 deliveries the non striker got run out in the process of taking a double on both the occasions. England scored 15 runs in the super over. And guess what the drama wasn't over yet. While chasing in the super over New Zealand needed 2 runs of the last ball to win and they ended up scoring just one. The super over too got tied. Yes it was not a video game, it was the World Cup final. England were declared the World Champions as they scored more boundaries when they batted in the main game. A lot of questions raised. Was that overthrow decision correct? Was the rule of declaring the winner after the super over got tied correct?

According to the rule of overthrow, If the ball reaches the boundary as a result of an overthrow, then the four runs for the boundary are added to the number of completed runs before the ball is released by the fielder. When Martin Guptill threw the ball on the 4th ball of the final over, Stokes just completed one run and did not cross the non striker in the process of taking 2nd run. So instead of 6 runs which were rewarded only 5 runs were supposed to be given. That was an umpiring fault.

If super over ends in a tie now, the super over will continue till the clear winner is obtained. This wasn't the rule before the world cup final. Earlier if a super over ended in a tie the team with more boundaries in the main game was declared the winner which was completely wrong. According to me, the rule is perfect now.