India vs Australia: At Kotla on Sunday, DRS meant Drama, Recreation and Suspense

More then 5 minutes after umpire Michael Gough had declared Steve Smith lbw for missing a sweep of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ferozshah Kotla reverberated to the roar of the people’s verdict. Not less than 15,000 fan fingers were raised to the skies after a slow-loading DRS – replays, more replays, rock-and-rolls, spikeless ultra edge – showed that the ball would have hit the stumps.
Technology does take time to full-proof on-field decisions, it hampers the flow of play and football fans hate it. But as was evident on a warm Sunday morning at Kotla, in cricket, it’s a different story. Tech snags can even entertain.
In a session where 10 wickets fell to spinners, on a pitch where the ball kept low and spun marginally, both India and Australia didn’t trust the naked eye judgement of the two umpires. To decide this Test match of small margins, they would keep going for the more accurate digital second-opinion. The crowd too loved it. They would stand transfixed, stare at the stadium’s two giant televisions, get into animated discussions, debate the dismissal, quote laws, make predictions and keep their fingers crossed. Once the decision would go India’s way, they would uncross the finger and raise it in glee. Most pretending that they knew it was coming. Had the DRS decision not gone their way, there was always the umpire to blame, technology to be dissed.
But didn’t this interrupt the game or durb its flow? Didn’t it take away from the spontaneity of the sport? No it didn’t. Not for a day-long sport that takes a break to change ends after every 6 legitimate balls and has two intervals for lunch and tea. Maybe, football, a sport that so stringently guarded its simplicity, has a point, but in cricket – as the Kotla terraces would vouch – DRS adds to the drama, heightens suspense and increases fan engagement.
Australia’s Peter Handscomb and Matt Renshaw await for the DRS decision during the match. (REUTERS)
Take the case of an early lbw appeal against Australia No.3 Marnus Labuschagne. Team India and the Indian fans in the stands knew that Labuschagne could be a game-changer.  After Travis Head had demystified the pitch and Ravindra Jadeja late on Day 2, Australians seemed back on track in the series. His counter-attacking seemed to be working, Australia were 61/1 in 12 overs.
Smith and Labuschagne were expected to press their advantage further. They were expected to pile on the runs, put India under pressure. Any three-digit fourth innings target on this Kotla pitch was to be cumbersome. Head would get out early, in the first over of the day. Now it was up to the old firm. Smith-Labuschagne had to deliver.
Smith and Labuschagne would be one of the two keys to unlock Australia. India could afford to lose all 3 DRS to get these two. Labuschagne would hit 5 fours, Smith 1. They were unshackling. Fans were getting uneasy, chants for wickets were getting louder and desperate.

When Ashwin threw one up to Labuschagne, it was pitched outside off. The Aussie No.3 went for a reverse sweep. The stroke had worked for Usman Khawaja in the first innings. It didn’t for him in the second. Even Labuschagne didn’t connect. It hit the back leg. Kotla screamed, Ashwin’s appeal was barely heard in the din. The umpire was not impressed. Ashwin pushed Rohit to go for a review, he agreed. Game stops, there are shouts of glee from the stands.Those ordering ‘chole kulche’ in the foyers, rush in shouting ‘kya hua, kya hua?’
The wait for the video deliberations and final decision follows a similar crowd pattern across India. It starts with everyone leaving their seats, craning their necks to get the best view of the in-stadia giant screens. The camera captures the close up of players. Rohit Sharma isn’t a fan of such frames. In the last Test at Nagpur, according to a viral video and amateur lip-readers, Rohit seems to be saying something on the lines – ‘show the replay, why are you focusing on us’.
He has a point but the broadcasters wouldn’t miss a chance to capture the natural emotions of players. It is when the mind is preoccupied, one can’t pretend or be what they are not. In these times of rehearsed over-the-top celebrations, the tense faces of players during the DRS wait is cricket’s rare moment of reality TV.

There’s also a layer of intrigue. The wicket-keeper, however junior he might be, becomes an important part of decision making. Captains have to take tough calls. Rohit too faced that dilemma. Should he go with Ashwin, the cerebral spinner with loads of experience or a rookie keeper Bharat? Even umpires are part of the play. The other day Nitin Menon was made a villain the vile world of social media. He gave Virat Kohli out, that too at Kotla, after endless replays showed that it was a marginal call. DRS made Menon trend on Twitter.
Back to the Labuschagne appeal. The fans and players were waiting, going through the same emotion. The pictures on the screen come alive. Labuschagne missed the ball, according to Ultra edge. The crowd let out a cheer. Lbw was in play. It was now up to ball-tracking. Grown-ups had hands on their heads. There aren’t many places in the world, other than a cricket stadium, where the mood of thousands, mostly adults, gets dictated elementary Computer-Generted-Images of a headless worm bouncing on a cricket pitch. Kotla let out a loud groan as the ball hit Labuschagne’s back leg that was outside the off-stump. It’s an early signal that the ball’s destination is not the stumps. After the eventful intermission, that almost gave a wicket, play would resume.
In Ashwin’s very next over, the same drama unfolds again. This time it was Smith who missed the sweep. Ashwin again thinks it’s lbw, so does the umpire and also those sitting in Row Z at mid-wicket. Australia too has reviews. Once again there is the lull before the storm kind of silence at Kotla. They all rise again, the wait starts all over again. There’s no bat, according to the Ultra Edge. A straight line on the monitor is never a good sign. The headless worm hits the stumps. Kotla explodes. On Sunday, the action on the field was riveting and even the intervals were entertaining.