As bowlers continue to dominate matters in the Middle East, the batsmen are making some extremely placid pitches look like cricketing prisms. A lot of this pandemonium is due to the DRS, which has resulted in a record number of LBWs for a three match test series. Not so long ago, batsmen had the luxury of kicking away bowlers – especially the spinners – and prolonging their picnic period on flat wickets – a long stride is all it took to convince the umpires that LBW decision could not go in the bowler’s favour, even if the ball was en route to crashing half way up the middle stump. Just like the DRS – or the halk-eye – was the best thing to happen to tennis for ages, the same can be said for cricket. In fact it is all the more important in cricket, with so much more resting on a dismissal.
Now with the DRS, with all its facets and technologies, at the back of the batmen’s minds, indecisiveness has crept inside the batting lineups of both England and Pakistan – hence, the domination of bowlers and the low-scoring matches. After bringing about a plethora of changes to aid the batsmen ever since limited overs cricket came into being; from the 30 yard circle, to the power plays and the free hits and what not; to ensuring that cricketing conditions are almost always batsmen friendly, cricket seemed to be metamorphosing into baseball in that batting was going to be the attack and the bowling would have been the defence. However, with the advent of the DRS the bowlers finally have a lifeline.
The DRS is not only ensuring that umpiring howlers are purged out from the game – well almost – what it has also ensured is that batsman don’t have everything their own way anymore. It has also ensured that umpires also have to be on their A game, and don’t have the luxury of simply overlooking decisions because they have been customarily dumped in the, “well that can’t be given out” bin. The equation is simple now; if the ball is going on to hit the stumps – with all other relevant boxes ticked – the batsman has to go, even if he has a mile long stride outside the batting crease! Yes there is the three metre rule, but as far as batting strides go, it would take someone of Kevin Pieterson’s size dancing down the wicket to top that. And of course this bodes well for the prospect of a fair, evenly contested and exciting game of cricket.
Another thing the DRS has done is that it has added to the menace of the spin bowlers. Historically, only the most obvious LBWs went in the favour of the spinners, and trapping batsmen in front of the stumps was never the ‘go to’ play for the spinners. With the DRS, the spinners have flattened out their trajectory and are more often than not targeting the stumps to try and get the LBW into play. This has also resulted in the rise of spinners to being the main weapons of their respective bowling lineups – and not only for Pakistan. The fact that there are four spinners in the top five ODI bowlers, vindicates the claim. Let’s hope cricket continues to enhance itself with the proper utilisation of technology, and we continue to see some pulsating and evenly contested matchups. Considering the BCCI’s undue influence, and their whines apropos DRS, you never know when a bizarre decision is around the corner.
