Five most embarrassing DRS calls taken by cricketers

The advent of technology has brought about a change in all aspects of the world. Sport is no different. Effective use of technology helps to reduce human error and act as guides for umpires and referees across sports. In Cricket, the most widely used technology to assist the umpire is the DRS or the Decision Review System. Under DRS, if the players of the batting or bowling team feel the umpire has made an error in his decision, they can challenge the umpire and using various elements such as hotspot, snickometer, ball tracking etc they can overturn the umpire’s decision.

While the technology is useful, a number of times it becomes genuinely difficult for players to decide whether to go for DRS as limited reviews are given to each team and only 15 seconds are allotted to make the call. Due to this in the last few years, there have been some absolutely horrendous DRS calls which have made no sense at all. Here, we look at 5 of the worst DRS calls ever made.

5. Mushfiqur Rahim

This incident took place in the first innings of a Test match being played between India and Bangladesh in 2017. India were well placed and Virat Kohli was batting confidently on 31 when left-arm spinner Taijul Islam bowled an innocuous straight ball to which Kohli played a forward push and the bat seemed to brush the pad. However, the ball got Mushfiqur Rahim extremely excited and while there was no interest from the rest of the team to everyone’s surprise, Bangladesh took the DRS at Rahim’s insistence. The replays, as expected, clearly showed the ball hitting the bat, with the pad not even in sight. This incident left Kohli smiling while Rahim was thoroughly embarrassed.

4. Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson who is usually a very calm and composed customer also fell prey to the lure of DRS. In 2016 in Hamilton, Azhar Ali was up against Matt Henry who was in the middle of a fiery spell. Henry bowled a brilliant bouncer and Ali ducked with the ball whizzing past Azhar’s shoulder. While there wasn’t any loud noise, the New Zealand players thought the ball had touched Ali’s gloves while going through to the keeper. While Williamson was hesitant, on consulting with the keeper, BJ Watling, he went for the DRS. Replays confirmed Kane’s hesitation as the ball wasn’t even close to the glove. Rather Ali had even lowered his glove while ducking and it turned out to be a really bad call for New Zealand.

3. Misbah ul Haq

In 2016, when Pakistan were up against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket ground in the boxing day Test, we witnessed one of the most bizarre DRS calls ever. After having piled up 443, Australia had just started off their innings when there was a sudden appeal for caught behind by the wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed which got the bowler Mohammad Amir excited as well. A good delivery which looked like it had beaten David Warner comfortably was sent for DRS by Misbah ul Haq after being convinced by Sarfaraz. The big screen showed there was broad daylight between the bat and ball. It was shocking since even the commentators on first viewing were pretty sure the ball wasn’t close to the bat.

2. Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has always been an excited individual. So, when a ball went past Alistair Cook’s bat at Rajkot, in the first Test of a series against England, Kohli naturally went up for an appeal. Cook had scored in excess of 100 already and this Umesh Yadav delivery seemed to be the opening for Kohli. Without much discussion, he went up for the review and as it turned out there was enough gap between bat and ball to fit a hand in between. It was a huge blunder and Kohli walked back to his fielding position with a wry smile, evidently embarrassed.

1. Soumya Sarkar

Easily the funniest and most embarrassing incident involving the DRS is Soumya Sarkar’s dismissal against Sri Lanka’s Asela Gunaratne. Batting positively on 53 of 48 in pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 457 to win the game, Sarkar was comprehensively beaten by a good ball and was bowled. However, to everyone’s astonishment, Sarkar went up for the DRS as he hadn’t realised he had been bowled and thought that he had been given out caught behind. There was plenty of confusion all around with Sri Lanka players celebrating in a huddle and Sarkar refusing to walk off. The on-field umpires explained the situation to Sarkar and dismayed he had to walk back being perhaps the only batsman to take DRS after being bowled.