ICC World Cup 2019: New Zealand still coming to terms with the overthrow rule

New Zealand missed out on winning the 2019 World Cup agonizingly as England pipped them on superior ‘boundary count’. The match at the Lord’s in London went into the Super Over, which got tied after Martin Guptill was run out by a long way. During the dying stages of the game, an incident which is now a cause of a major controversy happened that allowed the Brits one extra run, which eventually turned out to make an impact.

In the last of the mandatory overs, a strong throw from Guptill positioned at deep mid-wicket resulted in four over-throws. The fact that Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid ran two meant that the Three Lions ended up getting six runs with the target getting down to three. However, Simon Taufel, the legendary umpire, said that England should’ve gotten five runs and he put forth ICC’s Law 19.8 to back his comments.

As per the rule, the batters are awarded an extra run only if the batsmen crossed when the fielder releases the ball. Stokes and Rashid didn’t cross each other when Guptill threw the ball. In the meantime, New Zealand team isn’t quite aware of the exact rule. The likes of Craig McMillan, their batting coach, Gary Stead, the head coach and skipper Kane Williamson, opined on the same.

“I didn’t know that rule, to be perfectly honest. I’ve played a lot of games of cricket, watched a lot of cricket and overthrows have always been added to what’s been run, as opposed to the point of the throw coming in,” the 42-year-old McMillan, also a former national cricketer, was quoted as saying in New Zealand Herald.

I actually wasn’t aware of the finer rule, says Williamson

The four overthrows brought the target down from 15 off four balls to almost a run-a-ball. Previously, Stokes, who was given the Player of the Match award, slog-swept Trent Boult over the cow corner for a six. Williamson said that he didn’t know the finer points of the rule and trusted the umpires in that scenario. Stead reckoned that ‘mistakes are human’ and stood beside the on-field umpires.

“I actually wasn’t aware of the finer rule at that point in time, obviously you trust in the umpires and what they do. I guess you throw that in the mix of a few hundred other things that may have been different,” the Kiwis skipper mentioned.

“The umpires are there to rule and they’re human as well, like players, sometimes errors are made. That’s just the human nature of sport, and why we care so much about it as well,” Stead added.