There was a bit of DRS drama and confusion by the broadcaster surrounding the dismissal of Ravindra Jadeja in India’s first innings in the ongoing second Test against West Indies in Port of Spain.
In the 104th over of India’s innings, bowled by pacer Kemar Roach, Ravindra Jadeja was dismissed, caught behind by Joshua Da Silva, for 61 runs, missing his century by 39 runs.
Bowling from around the wicket, Roach offered a full inswinging ball to the left-hander Ravindra Jadeja who took the bait and went for a cover drive, but the ball took a faint outside edge and was through to the wicket-keeper. As the West Indies players started celebrating, however, on-field umpire Marais Erasmus was unmoved.
West Indies decided to take the review and sent the decision upstairs to the third umpire.
Was Ravindra Jadeja given wrongly out?
Now, the clip that the third umpire was shown turned out to be of a different ball and not the delivery that the West Indies had taken the review for. Even more interestingly, in the video of that another delivery that was shown to the third umpire, and the audience watching, Jadeja was playing more of a straight drive and the inside-edge of the bat was flicking the pad at the same time of the ball passing very close to the bat.
With the spike showing on Ultra-Edge – though not confirmed it was because of the ball kissing the bat or the bad kissing the pad – the third umpire gave Jadeja out.
This left everyone confused: because on the actual delivery in question, Jadeja was playing a cover drive to a ball well outside the off-stump and not the straight drive to a closer ball that was shown in the video to the third umpire and the viewers. This created plenty of chatter in the comm box and among fans on social media.
The West Indies broadcasting team and commentators then offered their explanation, showing the actual ball that was in consideration. Fortunately for the broadcaster and the WI board, Jadeja was indeed out.
While on air with Curtly Ambrose and Samuel Badree, Daren Ganga offered a clarification while speaking to visuals of the correct replay of the wicket delivery. “This is the actual replay and the ball part. There was no contact with bat on pad,” he said, while the replay was shown on the broadcast. “This is the correct UltraEdge. And the right decision was made in the end, that is the most important thing.
“Just to clear that issue up and basically set the record straight, no fault of the umpires or the system, it’s just a glitch that took place.”
