NAGPUR: Eoin Morgan has lashed out at the umpiring standards in England’s five-run loss to India in the second Twenty20 International on Sunday, the captain saying his side would report their concerns to the match referee.
Chasing 145 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead, England needed eight runs from the final over but paceman Jasprit Bumrah held his nerve, conceding just two runs while claiming two wickets as India squared the three-match series ahead of the decider on Wednesday night in Bangalore.
Set batsman Joe Root was given out leg before off the first ball of the over despite edging the delivery onto his pads, and Morgan felt it had changed the outcome of the game.
“There is extreme frustration, absolutely,” Morgan told reporters. “It shifted momentum, first ball of the 20th over, losing a batsman who’s faced 40 balls on a wicket that’s not that easy to time, it is quite a hammer blow.
“It’s proved very costly all things considered. A couple of decisions didn’t go our way and we still should have won the game and that’s a big positive for us. That we didn’t, is disappointing.”
Root was on 38 when he was given out by Indian umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin and with no Decision Review System (DRS) available for the series, England had no way of saving the batsman.
Morgan, frustrated by the same official earlier when India captain Virat Kohli survived what appeared to be a plumb lbw appeal against Chris Jordan, said England would raise the issue with match referee Andy Pycroft.
Replays indicated that the ball would have hit off and middle stumps but Kohli, who was on seven at the time, was reprieved and went on to score another crucial 14 runs.
“We have an opportunity to do that before the next game, there’s always feedback given through the match referee on our report,” Morgan added.
The England captain said it was a ‘concern’ that DRS was not used during the shortest format, though it was present for the preceding Test and 50-over series.
“Even if it’s just for World T20 games you’d accept it,” he said. “If this was a World Cup game tonight and we were out of the World Cup or lost a World Cup final we’d be spewing.
“The fact it’s not [available] is a concern. There is as much on the line as there is in a Test or a one-day match so no reason why it shouldn’t be used.”
While DRS has been employed in Test matches since 2009 and was introduced in ODIs in 2011, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has refused to sanction its use in T20s on the grounds that it would slow down the game.
While England have been strong advocates of DRS, India has been much more reluctant to embrace the system. Last year’s Test series against England was the first time that India had agreed to its use in five-day cricket.
Published in Dawn January 31st, 2017
