All-rounder Ben Stokes didn’t want the runs gathered from the controversial overthrows awarded to England during Sunday’s World Cup final win over New Zealand, according to Test teammate James Anderson.

England were afforded the title due to a superior boundary count, after regulation play – and the Super Over – were tied.

The result might have read differently, though, had fielder Martin Guptill’s throw from deep not ricocheted to the boundary. What should have been two runs resulted in six.

‘The etiquette in cricket is if the ball is thrown at the stumps and it hits you and goes into a gap in the field you don’t run,” Anderson told the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.

‘But if it goes to the boundary, in the rules it’s four and you can’t do anything about it. I think, talking to Michael Vaughan who saw him after the game, Ben actually went to the umpires and said, “Can you take that four runs off. We don’t want it.”

‘But it’s in the rules and that’s the way it is. It’s been talked about for a while among the players, potentially that being a dead ball if it does hit the batsman and veer off somewhere.’

The victory marked England’s first World Cup title after four appearances in the final. They will start the Ashes series against Australia early next month.

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