Retired elite panel umpire Marais Erasmus has acknowledged making a 'significant' error during the 2019 ODI World Cup final, which England controversially won at the historic Lord's Cricket Ground. England clinched their first-ever ODI World Cup title by narrowly defeating New Zealand based on the since-abandoned boundary count rule, after both teams were level following a Super Over.

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Marias Erasmus suggests New Zealand should have won the 2019 World Cup final

The outcome of the match might have been different if on-field umpires Marias Erasmus and Kumar Dharamsena had not mistakenly awarded England six runs for an overthrow in the 50th over. At that crucial moment, with the hosts requiring nine runs from three balls, it was later determined that England should have been given only five runs, as the batsmen had not completed the second run.

“The next morning (after the final) I opened my hotel room door on my way to breakfast and Kumar opened his door at the same time and he said, ‘did you see we made a massive error?’ That’s when I got to know about it," Marias Erasmus told 'The Telegraph'.

"But in the moment on the field, we just said six, you know, communicated to each other, ‘six, six, it’s six’ not realising that they haven’t crossed, it wasn’t picked up. That’s it.” Erasmus was an on-field umpire in 127 Tests, 192 ODIs and 61 T20s. 

Marias Erasmus conceded to making another error in the final played five years ago when he ruled Ross Taylor out lbw to Mark Wood.

“It was just too high but they had burnt their review. That was my only error in the whole seven weeks and afterwards I was so disappointed because it would have been an absolute flip had I got through the whole World Cup not making an error and that obviously impacted the game a bit because he was one of their top players,” the South African said.

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Throughout his extensive umpiring career, Marias Erasmus felt the least pressure from New Zealand, often considered the gentlemen of the game. In contrast, figures like Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene attempted to intimidate him and his fellow umpires.

“They (New Zealand) were always very, very respectful", while Ponting and Jayawardene "tried to intimidate us. Sometimes it was subtle and sometimes not subtle,” the 60-year-old said.