West Indies Under-19 entered the quarterfinal of the World Cup in controversial and tense circumstances, as Keemo Paul effected a mankad to claim the last Zimbabwe Under-19 wicket – that of Richard Ngarava – with three runs needed off the final over. Paul ran through the bowling crease without entering his delivery stride and broke the stumps, catching the non-striker Ngarava with his bat on the line while he was standing a couple of steps out of his crease.
The two on-field umpires conferred before asking West Indies if they wanted to uphold the appeal, and once it was confirmed that they did, the third umpire was called in and found the batsman just on the line, ending Zimbabwe’s campaign in a game they had to win to make the quarter-final. The dismissal was within the rules of the game.
A visibly upset Zimbabwe captain Brandon Mavuta refused to comment on the mankad after the game “We got so close, no comment about it. I don’t have anything to say right now,” Mavuta said. “No comment.”
The West Indies captain Shimron Hetmyer said he was comfortable with the decision to mankad the final wicket. “I would say yes, cricket is a game of uncertainties, we’ve seen it happen in cricket before, it’s not a big deal for us.”
“Probably not,” said Hetmyer, when he was asked if he thought if it was in the spirit of the game.