Ross Taylor had a few reasons to be disappointed, following his team's six-wicket loss to England this morning.

But he was especially frustrated by the shambles surrounding England bowler Steven Finn and the repeated "dead balls" caused by his knee brushing the non-strikers's stumps in his delivery stride.

Finn has had the problem most of this year and did it three times in New Zealand's innings of 148 for six.

On each occasion the umpires, Simon Taufel (twice) and Asad Rauf (once) immediately called "dead ball'' making what happened to the actual delivery null and void.

This first became an issue during the English summer, when South African captain Graeme Smith made a song and dance of Finn's habit of breaking the stumps, during his team's test series against the home side. In an effort to avoid that at this Twenty20 World Cup, the ICC told the managers and captain of each team that a protocol had been put in place for this tournament.

Finn would be given a warning the first time he did it and then would be "dead balled'' every time thereafter. This morning, for some reason, there was no warning and the umpires went straight to dead-balling Finn.

Despite having been at that meeting with the ICC, Taylor wasn't impressed by the "Finn rule's'' application last night.

"I think it cost us eight runs and a wicket,'' Taylor said after New Zealand's loss.

Certainly a wide, a two and a boundary had to come off the Black Caps' score, after those balls were ruled dead, while Brendon McCullum's wicket is the one Taylor was talking about.

"I disagree with the rule. I think there's a rule for one person in particular and unless a batsman gets out, you should just carry on and it should only be a dead ball once a wicket happens,'' he said.

The feeling is the dislodging of the bails by Finn is a distraction to the batsman. That was certainly Smith's view, who successfully had a dismissal off Finn's bowling at Headingley overturned because the ball had to be ruled dead.

England captain Stuart Broad said this match against the Black Caps had been the first time his team had enjoyed any benefit from Finn's problem. He added that Finn was working hard to eradicate it from his game and that he didn't really think it was a huge deal.

It added an element of farce to this match and could have serious repercussions in another game, if the administrators aren't careful.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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