England opener Zak Crawly on Wednesday said it was ‘very frustrating’ to see 50-50 decisions going against their way on Day 1 of the pink-ball Test vs India at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Crawley was referring to a couple of 3rd umpire calls that went in favour of India as the hosts ended the opening day of the 3rd Test at a dominant position.
Zak Crawley’s reaction came after Joe Root was caught on stump mic calling for inconsistency of 3rd-umpire decisions. England were left frustrated after Rohit Sharma was adjudged not out after a stumping appeal towards the close of play on Wednesday. 3rd umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin did not check all the replay angles even as it was a close call on Rohit grounding his foot before Ben Foakes distrubed the woodwork.
England captain Joe Root was bemused by the decision as he went and had a chat with the on-field umpire. It was not the first time Root and his teammates were unhappy with the 3rd umpire decision as they had a lengthy chat with the on-field umpires when a Ben Stokes catch was overruled. However, in this case, replays clearly suggested that the ball was grassed when Stuart Broad forced an edge from Shubman Gill’s bat as early as the 2nd over of India’s innings.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating. We are behind the game. We need those little 50-50 decisions to go our way and it seems like none of them went our way. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It is frustrating, and doesn’t help our chances of winning if those chances don’t go our way. But that’s out of our control. We will try to better hopefully we play well tomorrow,” Crawley said.
England were bundled out for 112 in their first innings after they opted to bat. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel picked up a 6-wicket haul while R Ashwin picked up 3 wickets as the two India spinners ran through the England batting unit after the Crawley fifty.
India ended Day 1 at 99 for 3, training England’s total by only 13 runs.
