SK Play of the Day: DRS saves Cheteshwar Pujara on Day 3 at Rajkot

In the ongoing India-England Test series, apart from the batting of the likes of Virat Kohli, Joe Root etc and the bowling of R Ashwin, James Anderson and others, if there is one other aspect that is likely to be given as much emphasis as them, then it is the usage of the Decision Review System(DRS).

India have been very reluctant to use the technology, which most countries around the world have adopted, but prior to the start of this five-match rubber, they decided to give the system a go on a trial basis and hope that the issues they faced with it had been resolved to a considerable extent.

When the Virat Kohli-led side were on the field, there were few examples of the DRS coming to their rescue as England made full use of some very good batting conditions that was on offer in Rajkot on the opening two days posting a more a massive score of 537 runs in their first innings.

When DRS saved Cheteshwar Pujara

However, in the post Lunch session on Day 3, the Indian team management encountered an incident which surely would have raised their faith on the technology.

Cheteshwar Pujara was batting on 86 when a delivery from Zafar Ansari rapped him on his pads. It looked quite close when viewed with the naked eye and umpire Chris Gaffaney ruled him out, much to Englan’s delight.

Pujara, however, was not convinced with the decision and signalled for the DRS soon enough. 

When the replays came up on the television, the ball had pitched in line, the impact too was fine, but the ball, owing to the good amount of bounce on the Rajkot wicket, was showing to be going over the stumps.

The replay, shown on the big screen, aroused a great amount of excitement among the small section of fans, who had turned up at the venue, including his wife, who was delighted that her husband had received a reprieve.

After losing Gautam Gambhir very early on Day 3, Vijay and Pujara have steadied the Indian ship very well, showing a lot of composure in the middle and at Tea, India were 228 for 1 with the former not out on 85 while the latter unbeaten on 99.

Gambhir was dismissed for 29, lbw off the bowling of Stuart Broad.