Just a day after the ICC world cup 2019 ended former Australian umpire Simon Taufel opened up about the accidental six during the match. One ball deflection mishap cost New Zealand the world cup trophy. Simon, on Monday, said that England should have got only five runs instead of six runs off the third ball of the last over against New Zealand.
The game has been scripted in history now, because of the result it gave. Both 100 overs and the super over ended in a tie, after which England was declared the winner as it had scored more number of boundaries.
During the last over of England’s inning, the team needed 9 runs to win the game in 3 balls. Ben Stokes hit the ball close to the boundary but it was caught and thrown back. Stokes who dived after taking the second run accidentally hit the ball with his bat and the ball was deflected off towards the unguarded boundary. England got unexpected 6 runs and the gap between the balls and runs contracted to 3 runs in 2 balls.
Simon Taufel, who had umpired during the 2011 world cup said that Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus, officiating umpires, made a mistake.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Taufel, as saying, “There was a judgment error on the overthrow. The judgment error was the timing of when the fielder threw the ball. The act of the overthrow starts when the fielder releases the ball. That’s the act. It becomes an overthrow from the instant of the throw.”
According to Law 19.8, 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.
However, Taufel also defended the umpires saying that the umpires have a lot to watch and take care of during the match. Like after every ball, they’ve had to watch the batsmen complete the first run, they’ve had to watch the ball being fielded, to understand how it’s in play, whether the fielder’s done the right thing. Then they’ve got to look to see when the ball is released, in case there is an overthrow.
He further said that an umpire’s job doesn’t end here. He has to see see what happens after that, whether there is a runout, whether there’s an ‘obstructing the field’, whether the ball is taken
fairly. He added it is unfortunate that people think that umpiring is just about outs and not outs.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) Umpire of the Year, from 2004 to 2008, Taufel said that replays showed that the England batsmen Stokes and Adil Rashid had not crossed at the time of the throw so they should only be given 5 runs.
Taufel concluded by saying that it might be an error but it is unfair to say that the World Cup was decided by that one event.