Cruel sliding-doors moment puts Bess career in balance
Spinner may never recover from marginal lbw call that could have restored confidence and turned Test for England
Decisions even out over the long run, they say. Except when they do not, and individual careers turn on a single flip of an umpire’s mental coin. Take, for instance, Dom Bess’s lbw appeal against Rishabh Pant a couple of minutes before tea in Ahmedabad. As soon as the finger stayed down, this had the look of a slidingdoors moment – as painful for Bess as if those doors had closed around his neck.
Had Nitin Menon granted the appeal, Bess’s teammates would have been tempted to hoist him shoulder high, knowing that a firstinnings lead was all but assured.
He could then have returned after the interval to bowl to the tail. Rhythm and confidence would surely have applied some much-needed oil to his creaking action. Instead, his first ball after tea was another full toss. His third was a long hop. Both went for four. The pattern for the final session was set.
England never recovered. Menon’s 50-50 decision has probably settled their fate in this match and one wonders what long-term effect it will have on Bess’s Test career.
We need to sketch in the context for this pivotal delivery. Returning after his omission from two Tests, Bess had been struggling all day for control. He would send down a couple of promising balls, dipping and gripping. And then follow up with a howler that released England’s hard-earned pressure – a full toss or a dragdown. Amid an initially parsimonious attack, his economy rate climbed to around four runs an over and stayed there.
Then, with the score at 152 for six, came the Pant appeal. India’s voluble, bow-legged wicketkeeper was hit on the back pad while offering a rare defensive shot. And yet England’s appeal was curiously halfhearted.
In all probability, this insipid appeal reflected the general feeling of deflation around Bess’s efforts to date. Had James Anderson been bowling, the close fielders would have been pogoing on the spot like ravers at a nightclub (remember them?). Jack Leach would have run backwards down the pitch with his manic eyes, looking like an overcaffeinated gambler who had been playing poker all night.
Instead, Bess and his close fielders peered at the umpire in hope rather than expectation. Menon, who has had an excellent series, turned them down.
England reviewed, of course. But Bess was luckless, as he would remain throughout the day.
Hawk-eye showed a healthy part, perhaps 60 per cent, of the ball cannoning into the top of middle and leg stumps. Unfortunately, the bails play no part in this algorithm; only the part of the stumps below the groove. The verdict was “umpire’s call”. In other words, Pant was as out as he could have been without actually being out.
Were England hard done by? Not really; they had already been granted two wickets via marginal lbws (openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, both dismissed by bail-trimmers that were actually less adjacent than the one we are discussing).
In England’s own first innings, only Jonny Bairstow had been out that way.
But for Bess himself, this was a transformational moment. He may have a long time to rue his ill fortune before his next crack at international cricket comes around.
There are few sports crueller than cricket when you are struggling. A footballer or rugby player can be substituted, and the match does not go on more than a couple of hours in any case. Even an out-of-form batsman can sob away in the privacy of
He has real potential and is still the man who ripped out Virat Kohli with a beauty in Chennai
the dressing room. Bess was on the field all day, staring around at those pitiless orange seats.
At least this is the final Test, and he will have the blessed relief of returning to friends and family in a few days. Then he will move counties this season, leaving Somerset to take up the No1 spinner’s role at Yorkshire. One suspects that the selectors will opt for Leach and three specialist seamers for most of this summer’s Tests, but a strong showing at Headingley would still put him on the plane to Australia next winter.
Bess has real potential. He is still the man who ripped out India’s captain, Virat Kohli, with a beauty in the opening Test. The question is more about how much he loves the often thankless task of bowling international off-spin. After a day as chastening as this, most of us would wonder if it is worth all the effort.