It was expected for the Decision Review System(DRS) to be a talking point in this five-match series between India and England and another indication of that was given on Day five of the opening game in Rajkot on Sunday.
India were set a target of 310 runs to chase in the fourth innings and got off to the worst possible start with Gautam Gambhir dismissed for a duck.
Like has been the case for quite some time, the responsibility of shouldering the Indian batting to safety fell on Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, who started to steadily build the innings for their side.
However, in the 17th over of the innings, Adil Rashid delivered a ball that rapped Pujara on the pads and Kumar Dharmasena, who has been under some scrutiny for his decision making in recent times, raised his finger and Pujara began to walk.
Replays, however, gave a completely different picture. The ball was seen to have pitched well outside the leg-stump and had the right-hander gone for the DRS review, he would have surely survived.
Instead, Pujara did not for that option and headed back to the pavilion for 18.
The Saurashtra batsman was in the forefront of the DRS in the first innings as well, when on 86, he was given out by Chris Gaffaney and replays showed that while the ball was pitched in line and impact too was in line, it would have gone on to miss the stumps.
The call was overturned and Pujara went on to make a well-deserved century on home turf.
Barring that decision, India have not benefited to a great extent as far as the DRS was concerned and they will hope for the trend to change as the series progresses.
The match situation at Tea sees the hosts still 261 adrfit of the target,with Vijay and skipper Virat Kohli in the middle and one session to go.
You can watch the replay of Pujara’s dismissal here.
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