Referee Messes up, Hands Victory to Losers in Cricket World Cup Final

By Zaid Qureshi, 11, Naperville resident ( WritersStudio.us student)

The Cricket World cup is scheduled for October 5,2023. Cricket fans across the US will be riveted to their screens. Only once every 4 years is there a game as exciting as it! In the Cricket 2019 World Cup, all my friends, my family, and I were supporting New Zealand to win. We were watching the game live. I had soda and popcorn ready for the game. England was batting first and New Zealand was bowling. England was playing very well and was scoring a lot of runs, which is what you try to get in the game. It was making me a bit worried for New Zealand, but I was still confident that they could pull it off.

If you hit the ball to the boundary of the field with bounces, you get 4 runs, but if you hit the ball to the boundary without a bounce you get 6 runs. Running across the 22 yard pitch also gives you a run. Six balls is one over, and each team gets 50 overs, which means in total, each team needs to score as many runs as possible in 300 balls. However, you can also get players of the other team eliminated if you're bowling. There are only three common ways to do this. One, you have to catch the ball when the batsman hits it without letting the ball bounce. Two, you have to hit the three wooden stumps, the wicket, which is behind the batsmen while you’re bowling. And three, if the batsmen decide to run across the pitch, you can hit the wicket with the ball if they haven’t made it to the other side yet.

Back to the game. England was scoring many runs. In the end, they had 241 runs! That was quite a bit and made us a bit worried. Now it was New Zealand’s turn to bat, and Englands’s turn to bowl. New Zealand was also doing pretty good, just like England. At the last few overs, the game was getting really close, and I was starting to doubt if New Zealand could win. As the final over arrived however, I thought New Zealand could have a chance if they played hard enough. I was unable to sit still! I felt like jumping up and down! On the last ball though, I was very surprised that their total score ended up being 241 runs as well! It was a tie! But what are the chances of that? How could that be? Who takes the trophy home?

To decide who the winner really is though, there was another over, called the super over. It would be the tie breaker of the game! A super over had only happened three times before this game in a World Cup, so now was not the time to get a drink or snack. Each team got to play one more over which decides the winner of the game. My family looked relieved since now New Zealand had a chance.

England went to bat first in the super over. They made 15 runs. To win in 6 balls, New Zealand would have to score 16 runs. That would be quite difficult! I was starting to fidget and play with my fingers since I was worried. New Zealand was at 14 runs at the final ball. They would have to score only two runs to win. This was close! It was the closest it had ever been, and probably will be, in cricket history. You wouldn’t want to blink now! England bowled and New Zealand hit it far. Unfortunately, it didn't make it to the boundary. I gasped in my head. The whole crowd was roaring. New Zealand ran once but had to run again to get two runs. They tried to run again but England got the ball back and hit the wicket! It won England the World Cup for their very, very first time! The commentators were going crazy! I couldn’t believe it! My whole family looked disappointed and I was in disbelief and shock. “Noooo,” we all said, in unison. If New Zealand had won it would have been their first World Cup win, as well. We saw England celebrating on the TV, with their captain holding the shiny gold trophy. I felt mad and crossed my arms.

Only a few weeks later, we heard about a mistake in counting the runs. How could this happen? There was a mistake and England actually had 240 runs, meaning that New Zealand was supposed to be the winner! A replay showed that the referee had counted it wrong. I couldn’t believe it! This was ridiculous! And the worst part was, it was too late for ICC to give the trophy back! What was the only saving grace? At least we know that New Zealand were the true winners!