Did you see we made a massive error? Marais Erasmus recalls the ‘blunder’ in 2019 ODI World Cup final

This was despite the fact that the two batsmen, Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid, didn’t cross, as they went for a second run and the ball accidentally deflected off Stokes’s bat to the boundary.

“The next morning I opened my hotel room door on my way to breakfast and Kumar opened his door at the same time and he said, ‘did you see we made a massive error?’” Erasmus told The Telegraph.

“That’s when I got to know about it. But in the moment on the field, we just said six, you know, communicated to each other, ‘six, six, it’s six’ not realising that they haven’t crossed, it wasn’t picked up. That’s it.”

Going by the rulebook, it should have been five runs (one plus four) because TV replays showed Stokes and Rashid didn’t cross at the instant Guptill threw the ball.

Law 19.8 of the MCC rulebook states: “If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful 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.”

The overthrow that went for four after getting a deflection off Stokes’ bat, helping England take the match into Super Over and eventually lift the trophy via boundary count.