WELL what a game we witnessed in the World Cup final on Sunday.

As a Kiwi, my household loyalties were divided which made watching all the more tense.

The game certainly had many twists and turns but who would have thought it would have come down to a super over and then the number of boundaries hit in the match?

New Zealand were definitely the underdogs and I was delighted to see just how well they performed.

They were given no chance by many but contributed to an amazing final and were left with a few ‘what ifs?’.

If Trent Boult had not stepped on the boundary rope in attempting a catch then things might have been different.

The law says if a fielder touches the boundary with any part of his person while the ball is in his hand then the boundary is given. Instead of Ben Stokes being out, he scored six runs.

Then, what if the ball had not been deflected off the bat of Stokes as he dived to make his ground and flown to the boundary for four overthrows?

The umpires had a chat over this as there were two points to consider.

Had the batsmen crossed when the ball was thrown to enable the second run to be allowed as per the law?

They obviously thought they had as the extra two runs were awarded.

Then there was the question of whether or not the deflection was deliberate.

Had Stokes altered his line of running to deliberately put himself in the path of the ball, or hung out his bat to deliberately make contact and try to deflect it, then on appeal he would have been given out obstructing the field. But Stokes was so busy trying to complete the run he didn’t look round to see where the ball was. It was a complete accident which he acknowledged straight away.

Some people thought the ball should have been called dead but that isn’t the law. The ball remains live which gives the fielders a run-out opportunity.

I have seen this happen in local cricket when a ball is deflected and some batsmen take the run, which some they are entitled to do while others say no as it’s not in the spirit of the game.

For the ball to cross the boundary in that manner was very unfortunate from a Kiwi point of view but they could do nothing about it.

It’s just one of the many unusual things that happen on a cricket field.