Shamik Chakrabarty, Galle
Manav Suthar’s delivery to Lahiru Udara turned and jumped off a length. Dhruv Jurel was at gully, and despite the Sri Lankan opener playing with soft hands, the catch seemed to have been taken inches off the ground. Or was it?
The on-field umpires weren’t sure and sent it upstairs. Apparently, it felt like the fingers were under the ball. But as the camera zoomed in, an element of doubt crept in. TV umpire Raveendra Wimalasiri decided in the bowler’s favour, but maybe Udara had reasons to feel unlucky.
The batsman was showing resolve, and his wicket meant that the hosts slipped to 47/4 in their second innings. At the press conference after the fourth day’s play here in Galle, Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Ryan van Niekerk was asked about the reaction in the dressing room to the catch. The South African kept the controversy at arm’s length.
“You would look at, in general, you would look at the precedent set across all Test cricket and if you’re on India’s side, then you would think that that’s, you know, he’s taking the catch and if you’re on Sri Lanka’s side, you would like it to go the other way around,” he said.
The bowling coach put things in perspective. “It’s hard Test cricket,” he observed. “You’ve got to accept umpires’ decisions and you’ve got to move forward. If you sit there and you worry too much about what is going your way versus what not, then you lose focus of what you’re trying to do with a Test match as a whole.”
Maybe it was a case of the rub of the green going India’s way.
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