Umpire Ravi debuts at Lords

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 7^th 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 2^nd 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)