Nasser Hussain and Dinesh Karthik were not impressed with how the fourth day of the ongoing fifth Test between England and India ended. With just 35 runs needed for England and four wickets for India, bad light and rain brought things to a halt at The Oval — frustrating for both fans and players.
The officials have come under fire for not pushing to resume play once the rain cleared and light improved. According to the rule book, the game was supposed to resume by 11:12 PM IST, but it was called off before 11 PM. Hussain and Karthik both pointed out that more could have been done to get a result on Sunday, 3 August.
Hussain, speaking on Sky Sports, said, “Most importantly for viewers and fans who paid good money, remember Monday is a workday, and this sort of series deserves a finale in front of a big crowd at an iconic cricket ground, the Oval. That would have been some finale on Sunday, you may have just knocked off 35, or you may have seen Chris Woakes walk downstairs in a sling.”
“If the groundsman had said no, we can’t get the covers off in that time, the umpires would have to call stumps. I’m just wondering, you do have the option of the extra half hour, don’t you? If you feel you can get result at 7.30, if there was 10 to win, the umpires would have given the team the extra half hour, I was just wondering if you could give the extra half hour at 6:42 (11:12 PM IST) and say to the teams, it has tocome from the teams,” he added.
“We’re willing to push that back half an hour, are you okay, both teams, are you okay to do that, if one of the teams, if India could say, our bowlers are exhausted, give them a night’s sleep, then you say, absolutely fine, or England say, we’ve had a mad hour there, we want to come back tomorrow, that’s fine, but I’m just wondering if you could have a bit of common sense in there, but it’s a shame,” Hussain concluded.
Karthik also echoed the same, saying: “Little bit of rain, and I agree the rules are the rules, but I kind of like what Nasser said, that half an hour extension that you get meant, even if it meant it needed to start at 6.45, it could well have been 11, 12 hours, it could have gone either way, the crowd would have gotten to see the result, and it’s a nice feeling to know that both teams have gone so hard, you give them the option, they don’t want to use it, fair enough, everybody’s going to come back tomorrow for whatever it’s worth, but today, I think a little bit more common sense would have been to ask, I’m not saying it should happen, to ask I think is the fair thing to do.”
Now, all eyes are on Day 5 — whether India can stage a miracle and level the series 2-2 or if England bag the series 3-1.
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