Umpire errors leave England lost for words
England spinner Jack Leach claimed Test cricket had experienced its own “VAR” moment after being involved in two controversial umpiring decisions on day one of the second Test against India.
Leach thought he had centurion Rohit Sharma stumped and Ajinkya Rahane caught at short-leg during his spell in the evening session at Chennai, but saw both appeals waved away as India made 300 for six.
Ben Foakes’ sharp glovework went unrewarded when third umpire Anil Chaudhary made an unusually swift decision in Rohit’s favour, despite no obvious sign that the batsman had anything behind the line.
While that was at least a tight call, there was a clear error in reprieving Rahane after he was caught by Ollie Pope via pad and glove. England used a DRS referral to contest Nitin Menon’s “not out” verdict, but were perplexed to see Chaudhary uphold it without having viewed the relevant footage.
As with Rohit (161) before him, Rahane was dismissed almost immediately afterwards, but match referee Javagal Srinath acknowledged the failure by reinstating England’s lost review.
“It’s a bit like VAR today, still controversial even though you’ve got the video there,” said Leach, in reference to football’s own flawed relationship with technology.
“There’s nothing I can do. At the time I was a little bit angry, but getting a wicket the next over makes it a little bit easier and it’s not cost us too much.
“Out there we were trying to get them to roll it through because we felt it (the contact) had come after. They checked for lbw, which we knew wasn’t out,” he said.
“They said they were checking it, and then the LBW came up and we were saying, ‘No, no, no, check the other one’ and that was it. I got the impression that they hadn’t checked it.
“That’s all right, it’s obviously a mistake and these things happen.”
England will know India’s total is already a tough one to match on a pitch that is already offering big turn, with a promise of more to come as the loose surface breaks apart.
That is mostly down to Rohit’s wonderful innings, which defied the tricky conditions as he hit 18 fours and two sixes. Each one was roared on its way by 9,000 Indian fans – the first to return to a cricket stadium in the country since the coronavirus lockdown.
SCOTLAND 24 WALES 25
Hot-headedness cost Scotland dearly at sub-zero BT Murrayfield.
After controlling the first half, the Dark Blues let Wales back in after the break and Zander Fagerson’s red card condemned them to defeat in a game they were expected to win.
Lord alone knows what was going through the tighthead prop’s mind when he lowered his head and charged recklessly into a ruck from distance.
As soon as his tucked-in arm struck Wales prop Wyn Jones’s head, a sending-off was inevitable.
Referee Matt Carley decided – rightly – that Jones being lifted into Fagerson’s path by Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg was no mitigation, and reached into his pocket.
Carley had pinged Scotland off the park when they won in Llanelli in the Autumn Nations Cup, and he was whistling with worrying regularity again yesterday though this time Scotland’s discipline was poor.
They only gave away six penalties against England last week but coughed up three in the opening five minutes alone, and their continued infringing allowed Wales to come back from being 17-3 down midway through the first half.
Coach Gregor Townsend, who felt this was a game his team should have won, was asked what factors had cost Scotland and replied: “Discipline would be number one.
“When you go down to 14 men for 25-30 minutes, it’s going to be difficult. When you give away penalties that lead to points, that’s not helping your chances of winning. Those are two things we did during the game.”
As a result, instead of winning their opening two Championship fixtures for the first time in a quarter-of-acentury after last week’s historic win at Twickenham, Scotland were the architects of their own downfall.
This was a game they should have won at a canter as Wales are simply not that much cop at the moment, and had lost five members of last Sunday’s team through injury.
Incredibly, the men in red are now sitting atop the Six Nations table with two wins from two – both against teams that have had a man sent off for the exact same offence.
They toiled to put Ireland away last week after Peter O’mahony was red-carded with over an hour to run, and yesterday they made hard work of killing off Scotland, who defied the disparity in numbers to briefly snatch back the lead before going down by the most slender of margins.
It was tough on the Scots who stayed on the field, Hogg in particular who had another excellent game.
The captain scored two tries, the first a personal nightmare for his opposite number in red, Leigh Halfpenny, who guddled Hogg’s chip ahead, managing only to squirt it towards his own line where the gleeful Hogg pounced.
That came just five minutes after Darcy Graham had scored an absolute peach, timing his run on to Ali Price’s chip over the cover to perfection to pocket the ball and dot down.
Finn Russell, who kicked very well from hand all game, converted those plus Hogg’s 65th-minute try which gave Scotland short-lived hope of escape and added a penalty while Halfpenny’s penalty and Callum Sheedy’s conversion added to the Welsh try haul.
They outscored the Scots
four tries to three, touchdowns from Liam Williams and Wyn Jones being bookended by two wonderful scores from current Welsh boy wonder Louis Rees-zammit.
Lightning quick, the 20-yearold wing’s first-half score saw him finish off a flowing handling move by streaking over in the corner and meant the sides swapped ends with Scotland just 17-8 to the good.
But the pick of the afternoon’s scores came in the 70th minute when he broke Scottish hearts by kicking ahead and easily outpacing three defenders to notch his brace.
Rees-zammit also put Williams’ try on a plate – that just after Scotland thought they’d gone 24-8 ahead only for Gary Graham’s “try” to be rightly chalked off – and though deservedly named Man of the Match, he was the only Welshman who really caught the eye.
That stark fact makes a sore defeat all the more painful.