The 2019 World Cup Final was already the most dramatic cricket match in history when it produced its most controversial moment — a moment so freakish that it would have been rejected from a movie script for being too implausible. With England needing runs, Ben Stokes played a shot and set off for a run. Martin Guptill's throw from the deep hit Stokes' bat as he dived and deflected to the boundary for four overthrows.
Combined with the run they'd already completed, England were awarded six runs from a single delivery. New Zealand were incensed — the ball hitting a diving batsman's outstretched bat and ricocheting to the boundary was the kind of fluke that shouldn't decide a club match, let alone a World Cup Final. The rules stated the runs counted, but the moment was so freakish that even England fans admitted it was absurd. Stokes himself looked apologetic, which is the least you can do when the universe has just gifted you six runs through the medium of random physics.
The match then tied, the Super Over tied, and England won on boundary countback — a rule so obscure that most fans didn't know it existed until it was used to decide the most important cricket match ever played. It was like discovering that the tiebreaker for a presidential election was determined by who could juggle better.
The cascade of absurdities — the Boult boundary catch, the Stokes overthrow, the two ties, the boundary countback — made the final feel less like sport and more like a comedy sketch that had gone too far. A comedy writer presenting this as a script would have been laughed out of the room. "Both teams tie the match, then both teams tie the Super Over, then England win because they hit more boundaries in the regular match? That's ridiculous." Yes. Yes it was. And it actually happened.