Should England Have got the 6 Runs: England needed 9 off 3 balls and Ben Stokes hit the ball powerfully to mid-wicket. Martin Guptill fielded the ball and powered a throw to the striker’s end where Ben Stokes was running back. As Ben Stokes put in a dive to make up the ground, the ball hit him and cruised to the boundary. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena awarded 6 runs to England, getting the equation down to 3 of 2.
Was it justified?
The ICC rule states: “According to law Law 19.8, pertaining to “Overthrow or willful act of fielder” states: 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.”
As per the law, only the runs the batsmen have completed should be given in addition to the overthrow, which means only if the batsmen had crossed each other for the second run, should that be given in addition to the boundary that came as overthrow.
If one looks at the replays carefully, the second run which Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid took off for, shouldn’t have been counted given they hadn’t crossed each other at the time Guptill fielded the ball and fired in a throw towards Latham.
Watch the Incident Right Here
England would call themselves lucky, and New Zealand unlucky given what happened and the runs awarded that probably shouldn’t have. If not for this, who knows where the game might have headed.
