England ‘bazballers’ will bemoan losing Zak Crawley to an unavoidable occurrence and mull how best to keep safe from the Decision Review System (DRS) hereon as they seek to bounce back from an upset second Test loss to India.
The hosts, widely considered a threat to England`s hopes of securing a fifth Test series win, pulled off a 106-run triumph on Monday in an extended afternoon session.
Opener Crawley stood out with his 132-ball-73 as England came out all guns blazing in their mountainous chase despite losing Ben Duckett on day three. Interestingly, the on-field umpire Marais Erasmus denied India`s appeal off Kuldeep Yadav, but the second-ranked Indian team successfully reviewed the call minutes later, much to England’s dismay.
The tracker showed the ball would have hit a large part of the leg stump, but skipper Ben Stokes, at the post-match press conference, said what all of England was thinking by slamming Crawley’s lbw decision in the critical moment of the Visakhapatnam Test.
Someone in the commentary box wasn’t too pleased with his read, letting out an audible groan. Crawley held his ground with Stokes pasting an incredulous smile on his face as the players in the dressingGiven the fiercely contested nature of the series so far, and the tendency of both sides to stand their ground, Crawley’s lbw had the makings of a much bigger controversy.