Marais Erasmus admits his error which saw England win 2019 World Cup

Former umpire Marais Erasmus has admitted two key errors made in the 2019 World Cup final, which England eventually went on to win. In a thrilling ICC World Cup 2019 final, the match went to the Super Over after the scores were tied after 50 overs. The Super Over was tied as well, which allowed England to lift the trophy on account of boundary count.

Marais Erasmus and Kumar Dharmasena were the two designated on-field umpires during the 2019 World Cup final, played at Lord's. In the final over of the match, England were awarded six runs by the umpires when a throw from Martin Guptill hit a diving Ben Stokes' bat and the ball ricocheted to the boundary..

But later on, the replays suggested that England batters hadn't crossed the second run and should have been awarded five runs instead of six. The extra run proved beneficial for the home side as they tied the scores and eventually won the trophy.

Marais Erasmus admits his error in 2019 World Cup

While speaking to The Telegraph, Erasmus remembered the blunder and revealed his chat with his fellow umpire Kumar Dharmasena on the next morning.

“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? 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,” Erasmus remembered his mistake.

Marais Erasmus also went on to admit his second mistake that he made in the 2019 World Cup final. The umpire from South Africa gave NZ batter Ross Taylor out leg-before when Mark Wood's ball hit him on the pads. The replays suggested that the ball would have missed the stumps. It left New Zealand at 141-4 with Taylor dismissed for 15.

“It was just too high but they had burnt their review. That was my only error in the whole seven weeks and afterwards I was so disappointed because it would have been an absolute flip had I got through the whole World Cup not making an error and that obviously impacted the game a bit because he was one of their top players,” Erasmus added.

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Marais Erasmus retired from international cricket recently. He last officiated in New Zealand's three-wicket defeat to Australia in a Test match played at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. Overall, he officiated in 25 ICC Men's World Cup matches, 33 ICC Men's T20 World Cup matches, 18 ICC Women's T20 World Cup matches and six ICC Champions Trophy fixtures.

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