Dinesh Karthik, Nasser Hussain fume over 'lack of common sense' as officials declare early stumps

Even though the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England may have reached the fifth and final day of the series, everyone is aware that the match could have ended on day four if the poor light had not been called. With India needing four wickets and England needing 35 runs, anything can happen at the Oval. If the hosts need him to, Chris Woakes, who has a shoulder injury, is ready to put his body on the line and go out to bat.

Officials are criticized by Nasser Hussain and Dinesh Karthik for ringing early stumps on Day 4

India Vs England

Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton will be at the crease for England, and the pair will attempt to guide England to a 3-1 series victory. On the other hand, the on-field authorities, Ahsan Raza and Kumar Dharmasena, as well as the groundsmen, are being criticized for not getting on with it and restarting the game on Day 4 itself.

The umpires removed the players due to poor lighting in the last session of Day 4, and it began to rain heavily. But the sunshine appeared quickly, and the shower was gone. The game had to restart by 11:12 PM IST, according to the rule book. Before 11 p.m., though, the umpires declared stumps.

As the Test match deserved a box-office conclusion in front of a sold-out audience, former England captain Nasser Hussein said the umpires might have used more common sense.

Remember that Monday is a workday, and this kind of program deserves a conclusion in front of a large audience at the Oval, a famous cricket stadium, which is what viewers and followers who paid well for it most deserve. On Sunday, that would have been an incredible conclusion; you may have just knocked off 35, or you may have seen Chris Woakes walk downstairs in a sling. I’m simply curious if they could have done anything; they had 42–43 minutes to work with, and they were bound by the rules and the game’s regulations, Hussain said on Sky Sports.

“The umpires would have had to call stumps if the groundsman had said no, since we wouldn’t have been able to remove the covers in that amount of time. The question is, do you have the option of an extra half hour? I was just wondering if you could grant the additional half hour at 6:42 (11:12 PM IST) and tell the teams that it has to come from them, if you thought that you could get a result at 7.30, and if there was 10 to win, the umpires would have given the team the extra half hour.

“Needs more common sense”

Additionally, Hussain suggested that the umpires might have given both India and England the choice and asked if the two sides would want to conclude the match on Day 4 itself.

“We’re ready to postpone that half hour, are you okay, both teams, are you okay with doing that, if one of the teams, say, 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,” he said.

Agreeing with Hussain, former India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik stated that the series merited a conclusion on Day 4 at a packed Oval.

Karthik remarked, “It would be nice to have 20,000 people at the ground rooting, whichever team won, on a day like this, especially with a Test series of this magnitude. I mean, it was either going to go England 3-1, which is what it looked like for a majority of the day, and then suddenly after tea, India’s come back and they have some renewed excellence with the ball.”

“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,” he added.