Far from proving that a world without DRS is not worth living in, the Boxing Day Test proved that a little faith in the natural order can see everything even itself out. Unquestionably there were at least half a dozen incorrect decisions made over the course of the four days, but I doubt anyone would argue now that any one of them was crucial to the result of the game.
Boxing Day was a day for outrage and scorn, most of it directed at the Board of Control for Cricket in India and their refusal to employ the DRS. Shame on them, they had stonewalled the technology from the decision making process, and here it was costing Australia! Both Michael Hussey and Ed Cowan were mistakenly given out, and as a result Australia were under more pressure than they ought to have been.
Ed Cowan had been wrongly robbed of a century on debut, and everybody conveniently forgot that the existence of a DRS would have done the very same thing to Michael Clarke in Bangalore six years ago. The lack of DRS had suited India superbly, and no doubt some Australians suspected a conspiracy.
Australia’s second innings sorted all that out, and sent all those conspiracy theorists back to their far more worthy study of the question of who really shot President Kennedy. Michael Hussey, so hard done by in the first innings, could have been given out three or four times in his magnificent recovery effort. Twice lbw appeals were turned down when the ball would have crashed into leg stump. Then his faint glance was brilliantly caught down the leg side by Dhoni, and again he was given not out. Brad Haddin too could count his blessings after a favourable lbw decision.
Suddenly Australian fans were serving India steaming bowls of ‘I told you so’, as the indignation of the first innings was replaced by vindication in the second. India were now getting the bad decisions, and it was all their fault for denying the DRS. It seems the irony of this turnaround was lost on many of those dishing out the raspberries.
What this all showed is that these things have a habit of evening out. In the course of this Test match there were a number of umpiring mistakes, as in varying degrees there always are. However, when it was all over, neither side could claim to have been especially hard done by. Neither side nor the impartial observer could argue that umpiring decisions decided the game. Australia won the match because they played better cricket in the crucial moments, showed more resilience in their lower order batting and bowled more consistently.
This is why the DRS is an unnecessary impediment to the natural flow of the game. The fact that a Test match contains umpiring errors does not automatically make us remember it for those errors, nor do they make it a lesser Test match. This Boxing Day Test will be remembered for high quality cricket, being a contest throughout, and for Australia finding a resolve and spine which some of their previous outings have lacked.
Those tyrants of perfectionism who insist on every decision being right will continue their caterwauling. However, this match was a triumph not for them or for the DRS, but for the natural order, which has reigned over cricket for its previous 140 years, and should be allowed to continue to do so.
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