Who would have thought that a game watched by approximately sixteen people and three goats would demonstate, more than any other, that the DRS has totally changed the sport? Sixteen wickets fell on the first day of the third test – and what’s more, the pitch was perfectly good.
England bowled superbly in the morning. To dismiss a team that chose to bat first for under 100 was an incredible effort. We did it through persistence, accuracy and skill – and not a doosra in sight. However, once again tomorrow’s back pages will be dominated by journalists lamenting England’s dismal batting. And none of it will be fair in the slightest.
I’ve always been a fan of the DRS – much to the chagrin of my TFT colleague Maxie. However, after today I’m beginning to change my mind. It has made batting against spin on low pitches almost impossible. Anything that hits the pads is basically out. The ball certainly isn’t going over the top.
DRS was invented to eliminate clangers and create a fairer game where batsmen and bowlers were rewarded in equal measure. In English conditions, it manages to achieve that. On wickets like this however, it has made umpires more trigger happy than Clint Eastwood. Very few decisions in this match have been good, the majority have been bad, and the results are extremely ugly.
The unintended consequence of the DRS is that that batsmen no longer seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I know there’s nothing in the rules that states the batsman should have the benefit, but it’s a convention; like not farting in an elevator.
Umpires have lost their heads. Steve Davis and Simon Taufel both had abysmal days. Some of the lbws they gave would have been ridiculed two or three years ago; they didn’t look out at the time and even though hawkeye showed them clipping the top of the bail by a millimetre, it just didn’t seem right. Too many close calls go the bowlers’ way.
Hawkeye has a margin of error of 2.6 to 5mm. The ball that dismissed the desperately unlucky Kevin Pietersen apparently would have made contact with 2 mm of the outside of the very top of leg stump. In that case, there was a fifty percent chance that the ball would have missed. Indeed, with that kind of minimal contact, there’s no guarantee the bails would have been removed even if it had hit the stumps.
Many borderline ‘umpires call’ decisions are therefore too close for technology to call – and umpires should be astute enough to realise that the glut of referrals showing balls barely clipping the stumps is no reason to get trigger happy. Common sense, it seems, has completely gone out of the window. Where’s Dickie Bird when you need him?
Twitter has been full of people praising the DRS. I’ve heard many intelligent observers remark ‘well, people were complaining about run fests on featherbeds beforehand’, ‘the DRS forces batsmen to use the bat, which is what the game is all about’, ‘it’s not the DRS, it’s the fact that England’s batsmen are useless’ etc ad nauseum.
All of this is twaddle. These people can’t be batsmen, or know anything about batting. When facing quality spinners, you need to take a big stride and suffocate the spin. This means you simply have to use the pad sometimes. If you play the line of the ball exclusively with your bat, you’re going to get bowled by deliveries that turn even slightly. Blimey, Ashley Giles would have a field day.
The Matt Prior dismissal was the perfect case in point. Knowing he’d be given out if the ball as much as flicked his pad, and knowing that sweeping is no longer an option, poor Matt was forced to stay legside of the ball and play the line. As soon as the ball moved by two inches (enough to miss the blade) he was a dead man. The situation is made worse when the bowler is allowed to bowl bent arm doosras. You’ve got no chance of hitting the thing if your only option is to play the line. If you’re not bowled, an outside edge is just a matter of time.
And remember, it’s not just England’s batsmen getting embarrassed by the DRS. Pakistan’s batsmen, who are used to playing spin the subcontinent, have made Monty Panesar look like Bishen Bedi. All left arm spinners need to do is bowl straight at a decent pace – and wait for the odd one to turn. When it does, the batsman can’t adjust his game to compensate because he’s committed to playing the line. Otherwise it’s death by DRS.
This series has demonstrated that cricket has changed dramatically. If you like tests that are over in two and a half days, when the highest score in the match is forty odd, then you’ll probably be a fan of the DRS. Personally however, I like a fair contest between bat and ball. Too much used to be in favour of the batsmen. Now it’s the other extreme. Surely a happy balance can be struck?
At the end of play, musical maestro (and former England opener) Mark Butcher tweeted that spinners would fill their boots on the subcontinent until batsmen find a way to combat the DRS. I asked him what he would personally do to adapt. His reply was extremely revealing: ‘already done it, I retired!’
James Morgan
Don’t understand the issue with the kp decision. The umpire gave it out, drs assessment gave it out so what is the problem? Also, its a sign of the times that batsmen technique are poor. How can test cricket be a good preparation for the rigours of T20 batting with all these short innings?
James – wholeheartedly agree with you, although I do worry that pushing for an alteration to DRS (or amendment to the LBW rule) just after we obtain No. 1 status might, to some, smack of hypocrisy!
I find it amusing that India’s refusal to use the DRS is going to help our batsmen a huge amount when we tour there later this year ;-)
As a former (second string) off spinner it heartens me that the days of just thrusting the front pad down the wickets are gone. To often have I bowled another straight ball (I never turned many) and got another not out from the umpire (apparently if you didn’t turn it you didn’t deserve a wicket – unless the batsmam was sweeping – and if you did it was probably missing anyway).
But, despite some poor technique (from both sides), there appears some imbalance in this series – for both sides!
That said, like Goose I do worry about our T20 form. And bring on India…
DRS is changing the game, but in my view the better. The most important thing it’s woken people up to is if the ball’s hitting the stumps, it’s irrelevant how far the batsman plays forward. Cricket is supposed to be about bat on ball, not pad on ball. If DRS deters players padding up to spinners, it’ll be good for the game as entertainment in the longer term, even if it means some low scoring games in the short term as batsmen adjust.
The problem is, it’s almost impossible to play exclusively with the bat when the bowler has a doosra up his sleeve. You’ll be caught behind in no time. It’s a little unfair to ask batsmen to play bowlers of this nature exclusively with the bat i.e. to play the line, if nobody (including the wicket keeper by the way) has a clue which way the ball is going to turn. It’s all about creating a balance between bat and ball, and as the current rules stand, a guy like Ajmal has everything weighted in his favour.
Bowlers should not be allowed to bowl with bent arms – but the ICC has no bottle, so anything goes. Of course, they get away with it because the laws only refer to ‘straightening’ of the arm (which is why Murali got away with it). However, I’d love to ask the person that wrote the laws of cricket all those years ago exactly what he meant. I’m sure he’d agree that bowling with a bent arm is a throw, and shouldn’t be permitted. Obviously back then they never anticipated a Sri Lankan spinner who physically couldn’t straighten his arm, or a generation of Asians trying to exploit the loophole. Bowling with a bent arm isn’t cricket. I’m sorry, but it isn’t. This is a massive advantage that Pakistan have over England in this series, and the main difference between the teams.
They had a conference in Australia a while back (Warne, Terry Jenner, McGill & others) to discuss whether the next generation of Australian spinners should be coached to bowl off spin with a bent arm and attempt doosras. They decided they would not, because it was against the spirit of the game. And that’s the Aussies!
What a great article. I am still fuming over KP’s dismissal.Far too close for the umpire to have called but he did, RDS shows hairs breadth touch and so KP is out. Some overs later same type of ball bowled to Prior, umpire rules not out,DRS result exactly same as KP’s but, not out. Same DRS result But totally opposite decisions made in the one innings. I thought I favoured DRS till watching these Test Matches between England and Pakistan. It is not producing the result it was meant to and has totally spoiled watching a good day of batting. Some more homework required with DRS methinks.
One thing DRS doesn’t take into account. Hawkeye said the ball that dismissed KP hit 2mm of the outside of the very top of leg stump. Is that actually enough to dislodge the bails, or even one single bail?!
Agree on most points; however, does the 2 appeal limit not affect things somewhat? It’s not an endless cycle of DRS decisions, the captains have to use their discretion.
Yes, it’s not perfect – but why isn’t it better?
The crucial thing for me is that the umpires have been too keen to give things out. Once they start giving lbws anywhere remotely close to the stumps, the batsmen are really up against it. As Dave Richardson said at lunchtime on day 2, the batsman no longer has the benefit of the doubt – ‘the umpires have the benefit of the doubt’. The umpire’s role is therefore crucial.
Once they give an lbw decision on these pitches, it’s very hard to overturn it. They shouldn’t be giving things out when it’s barely clipping the top of the leg bail. Years ago they wouldn’t have done, but now they seem to be thinking ‘sod it, I’ll give that, and if I’m wrong, the technology will cover my back’. Consequently the emphasis of cricket has changed. It used to be ‘that’s not out, unless I can see conclusive proof, or I’m sure that it IS out’. These days the umpires watch hawkeye, and they’re convinced that most deliveries are at the very least clipping some part of the stump (even a coat of varnish). Therefore, they’re giving too many decisions. Their mindset has changed. Cricket always used to be balanced because umpires did not give decisions unless they were 100% sure. If there was any doubt at all, any doubt whatsoever, it used to be ‘not out’. This isn’t the case now.
Because in this series, due to a combination of DRS and the low bounce, it’s not been a fair contest between bat and ball.
It’s not just the wickets: maidens have been the norm and 60 runs in a session par.
But I don’t have a solution.
Think there are a lot of batsmen talking here. Odd isn’t it, that pretty much every innovation in cricket history that’s helped the bowlers (think back to overarm bowling, the googly etc) has had batsmen up in arms and shouting “this isn’t fair”. In two very different ways, both the doosra and DRS fall into this category. The batsmen have had it very easy for the last decade – an average of 40 was excellent twenty years ago, but just par for a Test player now. uld much rather watch a gripping, low-scoring encounter than
… to finish my previous comment – give me a gripping, low-scoring encounter any day over the run-fests that batsmen have got used to over the last decade.
And harmys head, are you a neutral or a bowler?! Think opinion depends on ones suit
I can’t see the issue with KP’s decision- pitched in line, would have clipped the top of leg stump (ok, I agree re the ‘benefit of the doubt case for the initial decision but DRS proved the umpire correct). It just reeks of KP’s self-importance nonsense and the fact that he’s out of form that he’s causing such a stink. He missed the ball and it would have hit the wickets, so UNDER THE LAWS OF THE GAME, that is out.
The simple answer is for umpires to only give it if they are absolutely sure, really convinced (so it needs to hit the middle of leg stump rather than the outside), that was the umpires call decisions will mostly be not out.
If people don’t like the DRS then it’s time for the ICC to change the rules of the game. Bowlers will argue that batsmen have got away with playing spinners with the pads for years……..
I agree re the bent arm – it’s ridiculous that these bowlers can get away with it, so that’s one to address via the rules………..