To err is DRS?

England lsquobazballersrsquo 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 Englands hopes of securing a fifth Test series win pulled off a 106run triumph on Monday in an extended afternoon sessionOpener Crawley stood out with his 132ball73 as England came out all guns blazing in their mountainous chase despite losing Ben Duckett on day three Interestingly the onfield umpire Marais Erasmus denied Indias appeal off Kuldeep Yadav but the secondranked Indian team successfully reviewed the call minutes later much to Englandrsquos dismayThe tracker showed the ball would have hit a large part of the leg stump but skipper Ben Stokes at the postmatch press conference said what all of England was thinking by slamming Crawleyrsquos lbw decision in the critical moment of the Visakhapatnam TestSomeone in the commentary box wasnrsquot 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 dressing room struggled to hide their disbelief The commentators then turned on the players arguing Crawley must cop the call ldquoTwo stumps were visible a baffled Ravi Shastri was heard sayingAlso Read A derby not for the faintheartedGiven the fiercely contested nature of the series so far and the tendency of both sides to stand their ground Crawleyrsquos lbw had the makings of a much bigger controversyldquoTechnology in the game is there Everyone has an understanding of the reasons it can never be 10037 which is why we have the umpires call Thats why its in place When its not 10037 as everyone says I dont think its unfair for someone to say I think the technology has got it wrong on this occasionrdquo Stokes saidldquoAnd that is my personal opinion I will say that But in a game full of ifs buts and maybes I am not going to say that the reason why we havent got the result we wanted Im just saying my personal opinion is that the technology has gone wrong on this occasion and I think thats fair to say You cant really do much with things that have been and gone A decision has been made and you cant overturn a decision that has been made That is where I stand on thatrdquo he addedNaturally a debate on the lsquospirit of cricket made an appearance again and has since become the topic of popular discourse Experts analysts and former players have lashed out at the contentious decision whilst calling for superior umpiring practicesAlso Read Donrsquot write off Djokovic just yetldquoKuldeep Yadav seemed to be saying bahut seedha hai to Rohit trying to convince him for the DRS I honestly thought it was pitching just outside but clearly Kuldeep knew what he was doingrdquo a fan wroteKuldeep Yadav seemed to be saying bahut seedha hai to Rohit trying to convince him for the DRSI honestly thought it was pitching just outside but clearly Kuldeep knew what he was doingmdash Mayank freehit_mj February 5 2024ldquoIndia won this test match with the help of umpires Gill was out on 4 by Anderson again But umpire saved him Same on field call went against Bairstow today when it was barely clipping Ball tracking for Crawleys LBW looked very fishy too Impact looked outside offrdquo an user remarkedIndia won this test match with the help of umpires Gill was out on 4 by Anderson again But umpire saved him Same on field call went against Bairstow today when it was barely clipping Ball tracking for Crawleys LBW looked very fishy too Impact looked outside offmdash Sai Krishna SaiKingkohli February 5 2024ldquoTechnology was again manipulated to favour India in the 2nd Test HawkEye ball tracking in Zak Crawley LBW was clearly doctored amp the ball would have missed the stumps Also Gill should have been out for 4 in the 2nd inns but saved by the manipulated technologyrdquo wrote a fanTechnology was again manipulated to favour India in the 2nd Test HawkEye ball tracking in Zak Crawley LBW was clearly doctored amp the ball would have missed the stumps Also Gill should have been out for 4 in the 2nd inns but saved by the manipulated technologyICC INDvENGmdash Daniel Alexander daniel86cricket February 5 2024ldquoSo the catrsquos out of the bag BenStokes says the technology got it wrong with the Zak Crawleyrsquos LBW Personally I agree with him It did not look outrdquo tweeted anotherSo the catrsquos out of the bag BenStokes says the technology got it wrong with the Zak Crawleyrsquos LBW Personally I agree with him It did not look out INDvENG INDvsENGTestmdash Vishesh Roy vroy38 February 5 2024As cricket strives for perfection in its adjudication processes the occasional divergence of DRS into the realm of fallibility thus serves as a reminder that even the most sophisticated technological apparatus is not immune to the inherent unpredictability and nuances of the sportThe views expressed here are the authorrsquos personal views and do not represent the views of MidDay