What’s the story?
The Indian and Australian teams were left with a disadvantage in the ongoing fourth Test at the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala as the Decision Review System (DRS) was not available to both teams due to technical reasons.
It has been revealed that the ball-tracking facility couldn’t be used for the first one hour of the day’s play and the umpires had informed both teams about the inconvenience. The issue was sorted out just before the drinks break in the first session of the day and the teams can now review the decisions if they are not happy with the call made by the on-field umpires.
In case you didn’t know...
After dismissing Australia for just 300 on a good batting surface on day 1, the Indian batsmen ended the day 2 at 248/6. Resuming the proceedings on day 3, Aussie pacer Pat Cummins had Ravindra Jadeja caught behind off the first ball of the day and the umpire ruled him out.
The batsman reviewed the decision immediately and got it reversed after the third umpire spotted a big gap between the bat and the ball, and the sound when the ball crossed the bat was due to the bat hitting Jadeja’s pad.
Extra cover: Ravindra Jadeja's perfect response to Matthew Wade on day two
The heart of the matter
After that incident, the on-field umpires and the players were informed about the unavailability of the DRS and it was speculated that the reason behind this is a power cut at the venue.
When the DRS was not available, the Aussies had appealed thrice with the umpire rightly ruling the decision in favour of the batting team on all occasions and made sure that there were no controversies due to the absence of DRS.
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Author’s Take
The DRS is a very crucial element in modern day cricket as it can turn the match on its head like with Jadeja’s decision (had Jadeja been given out, it could have turned the match in favour of Australia) earlier this morning.
Being the richest cricket board in the world, BCCI should make sure that the DRS is available whenever called upon and a situation like this doesn’t arise again in the future. The ICC should also take a call and have a back-up in case of any technical issue at the venue.
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