A former New Zealand international umpire believes the officials made a crucial error in the final over of the cricket World Cup final between the Black Caps and England.

The third to last ball of regular overs included an overthrow deflection off a diving Ben Stokes’ bat as he completed a second run, with the ball then going for four – seeing it scored as six runs.

Doug Cowie, who officiated in the 1999 World Cup, told Heather du Plessis-Allan his understanding is that you should only count the runs that have been competed at the point the ball leaves the fielders hand.

"There is part of the rule that says you have to score the boundary if it does go over the boundary. If it had not gone to the boundary, we may have seen no extra runs at all."

He says at that stage the batsmen hadn't crossed, so it should probably have only been one run and the boundary, for five in total.

It was ruled six in the match, which led to a tie, forcing a super over which also finished with the sides level.

England were then declared winners on boundary count back.

Another former leading umpire, Simon Taufel, says England should have been awarded five runs and not six off the third-last ball of their innings in the Cricket World Cup final.

Taufel didn't go as far as to suggest the umpiring error cost New Zealand the cup but says the umpires got it wrong.

Taufel, who was named ICC umpire of the year every year between 2004 and 2008, has defended officiating umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus but says they got it wrong.

"There was a judgment error on the overthrow," he told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

"The judgment error was the timing of when the fielder threw the ball. The act of the overthrow starts when the fielder releases the ball. That's the act.

"It becomes an overthrow from the instant of the throw."

Taufel, who stood in the 2011 World Cup final, knows just how many things the umpires had to consider with every ball.

"In this particular case, the umpires have got a lot on their plate, because like every ball, they've had to watch the batsmen complete the first run, they've had to watch the ball being fielded, to understand how it's in play, whether the fielder's done the right thing," he explained.

Former Australian cricket umpire Simon Taufel was named ICC umpire of the year every year between 2004 and 2008. Photo / Getty Images

"Then they've got to look to see when the ball is released, in case there is an overthrow. And that happens every delivery of the game. And then they've got to go back to see where the two batsmen are.

"They've then got to follow on and see what happens after that, whether there is a run-out, whether there's an 'obstructing the field', whether the ball is taken fairly. There's multitudes of decisions to be taken off the one delivery. What's unfortunate is that people think that umpiring is just about outs and not outs. They forget we make thousands of decisions every match.

He said "it's unfortunate that there was a judgment error on the timing of the release of the ball and where the batsmen were".

"They did not cross on their second run, at the instant of the throw. So given that scenario, five runs should have been the correct allocation of runs, and Ben Stokes should have been at the non-striker's end for the next delivery," he added.

Taufel says it's unfair to say the cup was decided by that one event. "There's a lot of 'what ifs' and 'what should bes' and 'what could bes' that happen off those 600-plus deliveries. That's the nature of sport."

According to Law 19.8, pertaining to an "overthrow or wilful act of fielder", Stokes should only have been credited for five runs.