Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena made a major blunder during the fifth and final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy on Thursday, allowing England to escape a close call involving Sai Sudharsan without burning a DRS review.
The incident occurred on the second ball of the 13th over, when Josh Tongue delivered a searing inswinging yorker that caught Sudharsan by surprise. The batter lost his balance while defending, falling to the ground as the ball struck him low on the pad.
England erupted in a loud appeal for LBW, but umpire Dharmasena shook his head and signalled an "inside edge" with his finger, a gesture that helped the hosts avoid burning a review.
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Replays showed the delivery was a low full-toss, and while Sudharsan was caught in a tangle, the ball had in fact brushed his bat before he fell to the ground. The misjudgment from Dharmasena, though inadvertent, gave England a major reprieve.
{{/usCountry}}Replays showed the delivery was a low full-toss, and while Sudharsan was caught in a tangle, the ball had in fact brushed his bat before he fell to the ground. The misjudgment from Dharmasena, though inadvertent, gave England a major reprieve.
{{/usCountry}}On commentary, former England captain Michael Atherton reacted sharply: "India would say we want England to burn their reviews."
Under DRS protocol, umpires are not supposed to indicate such explanations during appeals, making Dharmasena’s gesture a clear deviation that unintentionally benefited England.
England and India share honours after first session
The change in venue brought no luck to India captain Shubman Gill as he lost the toss for the fifth straight time in the series. England's stand-in skipper Ollie Pope put India into bat first at The Oval, and the tourists reached lunch on 72-2 as heavy rain cut the session short by five minutes.
The hosts got an early breakthrough under gloomy London skies with Gus Atkinson cutting the ball in from outside the off stump to trap Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw for 2. Fellow opener KL Rahul then bottom-edged an attempted cut shot off Chris Woakes onto his off stump to leave India on 38-2.
However, Sudharsan put on a great fight against the England fast bowlers, remaining unbeaten on 25. Gill too remained not out on 15 at the interval.
India made four changes to the playing XI for the series finale with Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna coming in for Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Anshul Kamboj.
England also made four changes in their line-up. Regular captain Ben Stokes was ruled out of the match on Wednesday owing to a shoulder injury and replaced by Jacob Bethell. The three other changes were Atkinson, Jamie Overton, and Josh Tongue replacing Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, and Liam Dawson in the bowling attack.