London, July 31
All-rounder Ben Stokes has cleared the air regarding the controversial ‘six’ which was awarded to England during the World Cup final against New Zealand.
“I saw all of that. I was thinking to myself, did I say that? But hand on heart, I did not go up to the umpires and say something like that to the umpires,” he said in the latest episode of BBC podcast.
“I went straight to Tom Latham and said ‘Mate, I am so sorry’, looked over to Kane (Williamson) and said ‘I’m sorry’,” he added. During the final over in England’s chase of 241 on July 14 at Lord’s, Stokes accidentally knocked the ball coming in from deep midwicket fielder and deflected it off to the third man boundary, while attempting to dive for his crease with an outstretched bat in a bid to complete his second run.
After consultation with Marais Erasmus and the rest of his umpiring colleagues, Kumar Dharmasena signalled six runs, meaning that England–who by then seemed to be drifting out of contention needing nine runs from three balls–were suddenly right back in the hunt for their World Cup glory needing three more from two.
