Umpire Ian Gould said 'sorry' to Jason Holder after a DRS call

The Windies skipper had every right to be annoyed but he wasn't and they played it in true spirit.

Published - 14 Oct 2018, 20:45 IST | Updated - 14 Oct 2018, 20:45 IST

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In the fourth innings of the second Test between India and Windies, an interesting incident took place which involved umpire Ian Gould. While the umpires in this series didn’t have the best times with the DRS as quite a few of their decisions were overturned, one of Gould’s calls stood but he wasn’t proud of it. It was a rather tight call and on watching the replay he realized that it could’ve gone either way.

The hosts were set a target of 72 runs to win the match. It was India’s openers Prithvi Shaw and KL Rahul who walked out into the middle with almost no pressure on them. It was in the fifth over off the bowling of Jason Holder when this incident took place. Team India already had 24 runs on the board in four overs.

On the first ball of in the fifth over, Prithvi Shaw ducked to get under a short ball bowled by the Windies skipper. However, it didn’t rise up as much as he would have expected. He took his eyes off it and was hit on the left bicep while he ducked just in front of the stumps.

While many instinctively thought that he almost pulled off a Sachin Tendulkar, umpire Ian Gould gave it to be not out. In one of the instances, while Sachin was batting, a similar incident took place. He ducked low when Glenn McGrath bowled a short ball in a Test match at Adelaide. But, the ball didn’t get up and hit him on his hand. Umpire Daryl Harper had given him out leg before wicket.

Gould gave Holder a clarification

Jason Holder, in consultation with the keeper, decided to opt for DRS. The third umpire checked the replays and the ball tracking system showed the ball to be clipping the top of middle-stump. Thus, it was the ‘umpire’s call’ which would stay and hence, the on-field decision of not out wasn’t overturned.

Gould was stunned after realizing how close it was. He apologised to Holder and was seen saying ‘sorry’. He later explained his decision to the Windies skipper and Holder played it by the spirit as well. The two shared a smile and talked it off.