The World Cup that wasn't won

“Mistakes are part of the game, but being a World Cup final made it different. So I was disappointed that it happened. But being the first South African to stand in a World Cup final outweighed that.” - Marais Erasmus

An edited extract from “Marais Erasmus: The Rock ’n Roll Years; Cricket in an Umpire’s Orbit” by Telford Vice (Naledi):

SOME cricket matches — particularly of the 50-over variety — are an inexorable ooze towards a result that can seem pre-determined. Why did we have to sit through all that just to find out what we knew would happen all along? The 2019 men’s World Cup final wasn’t one of them.

We’re at Lord’s, where a gnarly, twisty-turny contest has come down to England needing nine off three. Or New Zealand needing to defend eight off three.

Trent Boult leans into his languid, fluid approach to bowl the 598th delivery of an unnervingly balanced struggle. Marais Erasmus is at square leg, intensely alert to what’s going on all around him. But, simultaneously, he is a half-step removed from the centre of the action. He is almost in the wings of the drama.

We are often reminded that cricket is a sport for individuals disguised as a team game because at its core it is about what happens between bowler and batter. But there is someone lonelier on the field, especially when the sharp end of a match is reached. The umpire at square leg is that figure. It takes world class focus to keep all your wits about you when you are that person. Happily, the umpire at square leg is indeed world class.

Boult hurtles through the golden light and past Kumar Dharmasena to bowl to Ben Stokes. If anyone can do it for them, Stokes can. He is seeing — and hitting — the ball better than anyone else and is 70 not out off 92.

If anyone can stop Stokes, it’s the canny, resourceful Boult. A yorker is surely what’s coming. Instead Boult defaults to a slower delivery. It’s full and outside off and squarely in Stokes’ wheelhouse. He drops to a knee and launches it into the Mound Stand beyond midwicket for six.

Boult, rattled, serves up a flaccid full toss that Stokes hoiks, uppishly but safely, to midwicket.

Martin Guptill rushes at the ball like a fire engine towards a blaze. With the urgency of someone who knows the World Cup is on the line right here, right now, he swoops, picks up and makes what looks like the perfect throw.

The ball, a dot of white light in the gold all around, carves a parabola through the air that seems locked on course for the stumps. Tom Latham crouches crablike behind the wicket.

Stokes is on his way back for the second. He is viscerally aware that it’s going to be close. If he isn’t, a glance at Latham’s face — eyes like frisbees, body tight as a double-knotted shoelace, gloves like a Venus flytrap waiting to demolish the stumps if Guptill’s throw isn’t on target, would tell Stokes it’s going to be damn tight.

Stokes dives. Guptill’s throw, a thing of beauty, hits Stokes’ outstretched left arm. The wicket remains unscathed. Latham does not catch the ball. Instead it cuts a path across the pristine turf like a scar on an unblemished face, and crosses the boundary in front of the pavilion. Four burgled runs.

Stokes watches the ball reach the ropes as he lays on his belly. He wouldn’t have seen the ball approach from over his shoulder. So there can be no suggestion his handball was deliberate. He rises as far as his knees, turns to face the New Zealanders with beseeching eyes, and holds up his hands in apology or embarrassment or a plea for this not to be true.

But it is true, and it gets worse. Much worse.

Dharmasena and Erasmus confer. England are awarded six runs. Of course they are, as surely as two plus four equals six.

England need three off two. They score two. It’s a tie, and thus a super over is required.

A graphic headlined “Super Over Explainer” appears on screen. The last of its six points reads, “If the super over is tied, the team hitting more boundaries in their innings and the super over win.”

The dozen deliveries pass in a blur. England score 15, and Guptill faces the day’s last ball with New Zealand needing two.

At square leg, his back in the shade, his feet in the still bright sunshine, Erasmus stands with his hands apparently casually clasped in front of him. He looks like a man watching life’s passing parade, not part of cricket’s biggest match.

Jofra Archer’s delivery is full and slides into the pads. Guptill swings and is on his way. So, from two pitches wide of the non-striker’s crease, is Jimmy Neesham.

Two! Two! Two!

By now all concerned know that if any fewer than two runs are scored, England win. See point six above …

Jason Roy darts towards the streaking ball from deep midwicket. He is under such pressure that if he was a collection of carbon atoms he would be transformed into a diamond on the spot. His pick-up is clean. Now to get the throw right …

Guptill has completed only two metres of the second run when Roy sends his prayer into the air. But the throw is off beam — Buttler’s feet are on either side of the crease when he reaches to his right to fetch the ball. By then, Guptill is diving. Buttler transfers the precious cargo into his left glove, which he smashes into the stumps. The toe of Guptill’s scudding bat is two metres short of the crease when the bails cartwheel like demented fireflies.

On commentary, Ian Smith, a proud New Zealander, finds the composure to say: “England have won the World Cup! By the barest of margins!”

Not only are Erasmus and Dharmasena in the same hotel, their rooms are on the same floor and near each other. The next morning, they happen to open their doors simultaneously.

Dharmasena looks at Erasmus, his normally serene, open face touched by horror, and says, “Did you see we made a massive error …”

At the instant Guptill launched his inch-perfect throw, which collided with Stokes’ forearm and sent the ball scooting to the boundary, Stokes and Rashid had not crossed. So the second run he and Rashid ran should not have counted.

England should have been awarded five runs. Not six. The match should not have been tied. There was no need for a super over. New Zealand should have won.

New Zealand should have won?!

New Zealand should have won!!

“Mistakes are part of the game, but being a World Cup final made it different,” Erasmus says. “So I was disappointed that it happened. But being the first South African to stand in a World Cup final outweighed that. I always tried not to overthink things or dwell too much on matters that I couldn’t control.”

News24

“Marais Erasmus: The Rock ’n Roll Years; Cricket in an Umpire’s Orbit” by Telford Vice is available in bookshops and from Naledi's site.