England skipper called for the umpire’s call of the Decision Review System (DRS) to scrapped after their
losing to India by a whopping 434 runs in the third Test of the five-match series at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, now known as Niranjan Shah Stadium, in Rajkot.
Stokes’s comments were prompted by Zak Crawley’s second-innings dismissal on day four. The English opener was sent back to the dressing room in the ninth over for just 11 runs after being trapped LBW to Jasprit Bumrah.
The umpire’s ‘soft signal’ was out as the review from Crawley showed the ball to be missing the stumps as the decision stayed with Kumar Dharamasena’s on-field call.
In fact, it was the second time Crawley was at the receiving end of such a mode of dismissal after being being given LBW against Kuldeep Yadav in Visakhapatnam.
Stokes at the end of the match, was not a hppy man as he seen asking for clarification from match referee Jeff Crowe, alongside head coach Brendon McCullum.
“We just wanted some clarity around Zak’s DRS when the images came back,” Stokes told talkSPORT.
“The ball is quite clearly missing the stump on the replay. So when it gets given umpire’s call and the ball’s not actually hitting the stumps, we were a bit bemused. We just wanted some clarity from Hawk-Eye. It came back saying the numbers were saying that it was hitting the stumps but it was the projection that was wrong. I don’t know what that means. Something’s gone wrong.”
“It’s not me blaming that on what’s happened here, like I didn’t last week. It’s just… what’s going on?
England were also riled by Ollie Pope’s dismissal in the first innings. Originally given “not out” against Mohammed Siraj, the decision was overturned because the impact on leg stump was deemed conclusive. Watching live, the tourists assumed the on-field decision would stand.”
Stokes though added that he did not blame the DRS call as the reason for England’s colossal defeat.
“We’ve been on the wrong end of three umpire’s calls this game and that is part of DRS. You’re either on the right side or the wrong side. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side. I’m not saying and never will say that’s the reason why we’ve lost this game, because 500 is a lot of runs.
“It is not something you pin down to result of the game. Sometimes when you are on the wrong end of those decisions it hurts but that is part of the game. You want them to go your way, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. You just want a level playing field. The umpires have an incredibly hard job as it is, especially in India when the ball is spinning. My personal opinion is if the ball is hitting the stumps, it is hitting the stumps. They should take away ‘umpire’s call’ if I’m being perfectly honest. I don’t want to get too much into it because it sounds like we are moaning and saying that is why we lost the Test match.”
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