Technology got Zak Crawley’s LBW decision wrong: Ben Stokes blasts 'unfair' call in England's Vizag thrashing vs India

Chasing an improbable 399 in Visakhapatnam to go 2-0 up in the series against India, England, with their Bazball mentality, had put on a brave fight on Day 4. Zak Crawley played the central character for the visitors for the better part of the innings, with his calculated approach against Jasprit Bumrah as he notched up another half-century score. And the opener could have probably given England a bigger hope had he carried on his knock of 73 off 132 balls, but a controversial LBW decision cut short his battle as the visitors subsequently lost by 106 runs in the second Test. Following the loss, England captain Ben Stokes slammed the DRS review on Crawley's LBW decision, calling it "unfair".

In the 42nd over of the innings, when Crawley and Jonny Bairstow had managed to settle in with their 40-run partnership, Kuldeep Yadav provided India with the biggest breakthrough. It was a flat-length ball on leg stump, which stayed a touch low as Crawley went on his backfoot to whip it off, but the ball struck his pad instead.

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Indian players broke into a loud appeal, but the on-field umpire did not give it out as the delivery was sliding down the leg side. Yet, to everyone's surprise, ball tracking showed three reds after India opted for the review, forcing the on-field umpire to change his decision.

From the initial view of the ball trajectory, it seemed the delivery would either miss the stump just clip the outside of the stump. Had the latter happened, Crawley would have survived via umpire's call. But the trajectory showed that a major portion of the ball was hitting the leg stump.

Speaking to the media after the match, Stokes felt that Crawley was at the receiving end of a ‘wrong’ DRS call for an LBW.

“Technology in the game is obviously there. Everyone has an understanding of the reasons it can never be 100% which is why we have the umpire’s call. That’s why it’s in place. When it’s not 100% as everyone says, I don’t think it’s unfair for someone to say ‘I think the technology has got it wrong on this occasion’,” he said.

“And that is my personal opinion. I will say that. But in a game full of ifs, buts and maybes, I am not going to say that the reason why we haven’t got the result we wanted. 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.

“You can’t really do much with things that have been and gone. A decision has been made, and you can’t really overturn a decision that has been made. That is where I stand on that,” he added.

The loss for England saw India level the series at 1-1. England will fly back to their training base in Abu Dhabi and will return to India for the third Test in Rajkot, which begins on February 15.