An interesting incident happened in the fourth innings of the second Test between India and the Windies which involved the umpire Ian Gould.
Cricket news: The Windies skipper could have been angry but he wasn’t and played in the true spirit of the game
The decisions of the umpires in this series has not been the best as many of their decisions were overturned by the DRS.
But one of Gould’s call stood but he was not proud of the decision, because when he saw the replay on the giant screen, he knew it was a tight call and it could have gone either way.
The Windies had set a target of 72 runs for the hosts to win the game as openers KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw walked out in the middle with almost no pressure on them.
India had already got 24 runs on the board in four overs when the incident happened in the fifth over of the bowling of Windies skipper Jason Holder.
Holder bowled a short ball in the opening of the fifth over to batsman Prithvi Shaw. The ball did not rise as much as expected. So when Shaw ducked, the ball hit his bicep in front of the stumps.
While umpire Ian Gould gave it a not out, many Indian fans were reminded of an incident which involved India’s legend Sachin Tendulkar. He ducked the same way in a Test match at Adelaide of the bowling of Glenn McGrath and the ball hit his hand. Then umpire Daryl Harper gave Tendulkar out leg before wicket.
After consulting with the wicketkeeper, Holder decided to go for the DRS. The third umpire checked the replays and the ball tracking showed the ball would have hit the top of middle stump. It turned out to be ‘umpire’s call’ and the decision of the on-field umpire was not overturned.
However Gould was stunned to see the replays and see how close it was. He apologized to Holder and said ‘sorry’. Later he explained his decision to Holder and the Windies captain took it to the spirit of the game. Later both of them shared a smile and talked it off.
Here is the video of the incident: