Stokes says DRS got it wrong in loss
England skipper Ben Stokes said his team remained “levelheaded” on Monday despite losing to India in the second Test, but questioned the call of DRS technology on Zak Crawley’s key dismissal.
The tourists were bowled out for 292 chasing a record 399 on day four in Visakhapatnam as India bounced back from an opening loss to level the five-match series at 1-1.
“Being 2-0 up would have been great for us, but that’s the great thing about a five-match series, it’s the end of the series where everything counts,” Stokes told reporters.
“We’re a very level-headed team and that allows us to put things behind us, move on to the next thing and concentrate there.”
Stokes, whose team handed India just their fourth loss since 2013 in the opener, said: “Last week we were pretty level even though we’d achieved something pretty special. We recognised that but we didn’t get too high.
“Same this week, we’re still very upbeat about some of the great stuff we’ve managed to do albeit not getting the result we wanted to.”
Opener Crawley stood out with his 73 as England came out attacking in their mountainous chase despite losing Ben Duckett on day three.
Crawley’s lbw before lunch was a subject of contention.
The on-field umpire denied India’s appeal off Kuldeep Yadav, but the hosts successfully reviewed the call.
The tracker showed the ball would have hit a large part of the leg stump, but Stokes said technology got it wrong.
“I am not going to say that’s the reason why we haven’t got the result we wanted,” he said. “I’m just saying my personal opinion is that the technology has gone wrong on this occasion, and I think that’s fair to say.” The third Test starts on February 15 in Rajkot, with England flying to the UAE for a pre-game break.