The umpire controversially decided England should receive six runs when Martin Guptill's throw deflected off Ben Stokes' bat for a boundary
The ICC has publicly backed the decision by Kumar Dharmasena to award England six runs after overthrows in their World Cup final victory over New Zealand.
The umpire controversially decided England should receive six runs when Martin Guptill's throw deflected off a diving Ben Stokes' bat for a boundary.
The overthrows were just one of the many twists and turns on July 14 at Lord's, but in chasing New Zealand's total of 241-8, England were given renewed hope as they had needed 15 runs off four deliveries just two balls earlier.
However, according to Law 19.8, relating to "overthrow or wilful act of fielder", the batsman must have crossed prior to Guptill's throw being released for two initial runs to be added to the four overthrows.
Video replays showed that Stokes and his batting partner at the time, Adil Rashid, had not crossed at the moment the New Zealand fielder let go of the ball, and therefore should not have been awarded the extra run.
The game was eventually decided in England's favour by a Super Over after a tie in the customary 100 overs, but the ICC has come out and said the umpire followed the right protocol in awarding the runs.
The throw from the deep hit Stokes' bat before going off to the boundary
"They [on-field umpires] had to make a judgement call on the day as to whether the batsmen had crossed when the throw was released," ICC's general manager of cricket Geoff Allardice told ESPNcricinfo.
"After everything that went on during that delivery, they got together over their comms system and made their decision. They certainly followed the right process when making the decision.
"They were aware of the law when they made the judgement about whether the batsmen had crossed or not at the time. The playing conditions don't allow them to refer to such a decision to a third umpire. The match referee cannot intervene when the umpires on the field have to make a judgement call like that."
The news comes after Dharmasena himself gave an interview to Sri Lankan newspaper Sunday Times in which he admitted he may have made a "judgemental error".
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Posted by Andy on 30/07/2019 at 15:27
William Rees: It's maybe to do with these being extra runs due to the action of a fielder and not punishing the fielding side excessively.maybe Normally when the ball reached the boundary all runs actually run are discounted - unless they've already run more than 4. The 'deliberate act' element of the overthrow law is to prevent fielders deliberately allowing the ball to hit the boundary in order to keep a weaker batter on strike or a stronger batter from keeping strike at the end of the over. There could be a case for saying throwing at the stumps isn't deliberately doing any thing of the sort and any boundary resulting should be exactly the same as a normal boundary anyway.
Posted by Richard on 30/07/2019 at 14:04
Far worse decision on the day was Erasmus giving Taylor out LBW. I am a local league umpire and I thought it was missing the stumps whilst watching it the first time live on TV, dreadful decision. BUT - it is a tough job and in a pressure game like that, there were bound to be somethings that went wrong.
Posted by William J Rees on 29/07/2019 at 11:39
A real shame that the judgement did not match the rules. I cannot understand why there is such a rule. If the batsmen had continued running after the overthrow and had it not reached the boundary then however many runs were completed would count. They had also completed 2 runs before the ball hit the boundary. Why is it that they have to have crossed when the ball is thrown for that run just because the throw becomes an overthrow? It seems very strange.
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