Terrific decision on the last ball of Day 1
'Great feeling to be umpiring in a Lords Test' - S Ravi
Just
the other day he was in the thick of action at the IPL shuttling between cities. But just like McCullum and Boult, Umpire Shiva Ravi too
boarded the flight from Madras to London.
It
was his fifth test match but the most memorable one to-date. Not just the
players, it is an umpire’s dream too to umpire at the Home of Cricket. And it
was a great moment for the cricket lovers in Madras when Ravi took the field
earlier this afternoon (IST) along with Erasmus to make his Lords debut.
Great Feeling to be umpiring at Lords
In
a quick chat with prtraveller immediately after the end of the first day’s play, Ravi said it
was a good feeling to be umpiring at Lords and that he was particularly keen to
do well in front of a worldwide TV audience.
(an Indian umpire is standing in a Lords test after a long gap - Venkataraghavan was the previous one)
Ravi (http://prtraveller.blogspot.in/2013/08/s-ravi-set-for-umpiring-test-debut.html) says he was delighted to be chosen to umpire at Lords for it is every umpire’s
wish to umpire there. The fact that this happened to be a Test Match and a high
profile one has made it even more special for Ravi. There has been so much
publicity leading up to the Lords Test with papers all over the World having
been hot on the topic of Peterson being left out of this summer’s matches, the
sacking of coach and the MD and the appointment of Strauss to manage English
cricket.
And
after their outstanding performance in the World Cup and their moving up the
test rankings to number three, this Kiwi test team is no pushover this summer.
And hence this was a much awaited clash.
Two
of his reviews (by the Kiwis) against his decisions earlier in the day were
negated as was the one on the dramatic final ball of the day.
Last Ball Decision
It
looked like it would be a quiet end to the day for the 7th wicket
pair had batted for 25 overs without any trouble. But Ravi’s agility was put to test on the last
ball of the day.
Bowling
left arm over, Boult hit Butler on the pads as he tried to play to leg. The commentators’
immediate reaction was that it may have pitched outside leg and that Ravi may
have got it wrong.
It
turned out to be a perfect decision as Ravi lifted his index finger almost
immediately after the appeal for he had no doubt that it would have hit the
stumps.
Butler’s
review was negated ( all three reviews against Ravi on day one were negated) .
It
was a delightful end to his first day at Lords. And this augurs well for Ravi
who has been umpiring more of one- dayers since his international debut.
But
this may be the right sort of break for him to get into the Test arena.
Ravi, who will also be standing in the 2nd test of this series at Leeds next week, said it is
quite challenging to umpire in England given the conditions (movement (of the
ball) both sides, cloud cover, chilly weather conditions etc) – Yes while he
was umpiring in the 15 degrees summer at Lords on Thursday, it almost touched 40 degrees
in his home town of Madras, conditions that he is more familiar with.
The
way he handled the game on his debut day at Lords and the terrific last ball
decision (more so as it was from a left arm over to a right hand batsman) should
help his confidence for the rest of the test match.
A
good couple of games in the first half of the summer could help him clinch a
few tests of the Ashes later this English Summer.
( Ravi works for the RBI in Madras and played 1st division cricket for RBI in the 80s)
( Ravi works for the RBI in Madras and played 1st division cricket for RBI in the 80s)
6 comments:
Always wonderful to get such insight via your articles! An avid reader now :) Thanks for sharing again.
Brilliant choice of character, to write about.
Not many would have noticed that this was his debut test at Lords..!
Super
Nice article..deserves the kudos Ravi! Packed his playing career a tad early to plunge into umpire, even in late twenties and the rewards of labour,an ability to learn well,has got him to the position where he is now!
Pattabhiraman
Good one Prabhu... Hope he cracks the (so called) elite panel :-)
from B.Kalyanasundaram, Chennai
Very good article on S.Ravi's umpiring at Lords.
I am not at all surprised.I always felt Ravi could be the next ICC elite Umpire from India after Venkat.As a former match Referee, I had some excellent moments with him in Ranji and other matches and he did his part brilliantly.To me he is a complete package as an Umpire in terms of decision making,control of match proceedings and players,very good knowledge of laws & playing condtions.Most importantly he has good communication skills and he gets along well with every stake holder.
Wishing Ravi a wonderful future in world cricket and he truly deserves all the encouragement
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