England managed to win their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup title by virtue of hitting more boundaries than New Zealand. Even though there was nothing to separate the two teams as the match was a tie at the end of both the 50 overs and the Super Over, it was England who managed to claim their maiden title. For Kiwis, the agony of it all will continue to pinch them for long.
With the Super Over also ending in a tie, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 winner was decided by a mere technicality – on boundary count. England scored 26 of those in their innings and the Kiwis had scored 17 boundaries.
Many fans and cricket experts are in disbelieve that the winner was declared on account of such a rule.
However, an argument in favour of the law is that the rule has been made precisely for the occasion when both teams cannot be separated on the day.
That being said, it would be difficult for the fans, players and supporters to take in the fact, who are on the wrong side of this rule.
Here are some of the reactions to the ICC rule:
Some rules in cricket definitely needs a serious look in.
— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) July 15, 2019
Congratulations to England!
Commiserations New Zealand.
I’ve got to say that it’s a horrible way to decide the winner. This rule has to change.— Brett Lee (@BrettLee_58) July 14, 2019
Nice work @ICC … you are a joke!!!
— Scott Styris (@scottbstyris) July 14, 2019
A game that ebbed and flowed from the 1st ball to the 612th!
Feel for New Zealand 🇳🇿 who did everything that England 🏴 did and still fell short.
Congratulations to England.#CWC19 #NZvENG @ECB_cricket @BLACKCAPS pic.twitter.com/FlEJb0NfId— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 14, 2019
#ICCRules England won by poor ICC rules and luck. New Zealand won billion Hearts. pic.twitter.com/zct9mDDQwb
— prabhuGanesan (@prabhuitb) July 15, 2019
Strange that a game that has 5 days matches did not have time to do another super over and decided the World Cup winner by counting boundaries. #ICCRules
— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) July 15, 2019
Why we have a problem now with #ICCRules ? I know the rule is ridiculous, but it is ridiculous since they posted this rule long back. No point in discussing now. Start this in 2022
— Ashwin Iyer (@AshwinIyer3) July 15, 2019
Notably, this was the first time that a World Cup final has been decided on a Super Over.