Even though there were several noteworthy Indian performances that day, England’s second inning also garnered media attention due to Zak Crawley’s controversial LBW call. After Jasprit Bumrah caught the English opener in front in the ninth over of the innings, on-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena declared him leg before wicket. Crawley immediately requested a review since he was unhappy with the outcome, but the ball-tracking indicated a “umpire’s call” on “hitting,” therefore the ruling was upheld as “out.”
After winning the third Test on Sunday, February 18, by 434 runs at Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot, India moved ahead of England 2-1 in the five-match Test series. On Day 4, England surrendered for 122, chasing a mammoth score of 557, as Yashasvi Jaiswal (214*), Shubman Gill (91), Sarfaraz Khan (68*), and Ravindra Jadeja (5/41) excelled.
Crawley was incensed as he made the arduous trek back to the pavilion after it was discovered, upon closer inspection of ball-tracking, that the ball was missing the stumps but the umpire had still declared it to have struck. Ben Stokes, the captain of England, discussed the decision with ICC match referee Jeff Crowe.
Crowe told the England captain that the image displayed was incorrect, but according to the ball-tracking calculations, the ball was hitting the stumps.
“According to the DRS replay, it was decided that the ball should have been given out even though it did not hit the stumps,” said match referee Jeff Crowe. The replay shows that the ball did not strike the stumps. It seems that the image was incorrect, even if the figures indicated that it was hitting the stumps. I’m not really sure what went wrong there. According to Stokes, “I believe it is sufficient when those in charge say something has gone wrong.”
“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,”
– Ben Stokes told talkSPORT on Zak crawley Dissmisal.#INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/6QPeOOmEua
— CRICGLOBE (@thecricglobe) February 19, 2024
Notably, after Kuldeep Yadav trapped Zak Crawley in the second innings of the second Test match in Visakhapatnam, his LBW call also became the talk of the town. The entire cricket community was left perplexed when, to everyone’s amazement, the ball struck the stumps, even though it appeared on the replay to be missing the leg stump.
Review…..successful! ✅☝️
Kuldeep Yadav picks up the big wicket of Crawley to keep #TeamIndia in the driving seat 👊⚡️#BazBowled #IDFCFirstBankTestsSeries #JioCinemaSports#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/c4hMunPVSP
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 5, 2024
Stokes claimed at the time that the technology had made a mistake, and following another contentious call in the Rajkot Test, he requested the elimination of the umpire’s call altogether.
It is time to remove the umpire’s call. Ben Stokes
“In my view, the ball is striking the stumps if it is making contact with them. To be absolutely honest, if they take away the umpire’s call, that should be it. “It seems like we are whining and saying that’s why we lost the Test match, so I don’t want to get too into it,” he continued.
England is facing overwhelming odds going into the fourth Test, which starts on Friday, February 23, at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi, after they lost the third Test.
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