2013 Ashes

Lee

Top drawer innings by Clarke. Looks like it's going to be make or break day for England tomorrow. I just hope they don't go into a shell, which they've been prone to in the past, and score at snails pace.

Won't mention Bresnan not using a review after not hitting the ball

DrWise

Glad Aussies have put on a fight

JimmyMac

This will be a draw IMO, weather is going to start effecting things from day 4 so unless the Aussies skittle us 200 short and force the follow on I can see a stalemate

Geege

Me too!

Although I also see this being a draw unfortunately

Steve N

Can someone explain how the follow on target is decided?

I always assumed it was if team in failed to reach half the run total of the other team

Greg Hook

Follow-on - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

djdhrubs

DRS is interesting.

What I've learned about it is that sometimes batsmen aren't aware of whether they've edged it or not. That's the only explanation for some of the reviews.

What we can also gather is that not every edge leads to a white mark on hotspot.

So in summary, what we're using is a flawed system, which players don't know how to use properly, and when used often ends up in the wrong decision being made.

Cool! Let's carry on using it then!

JimmyMac

You can keep banging the drum but it won't change your misunderstanding of the DRS system, DRS itself has not been the fault in this series, the fault has been the officials, some absolutely woeful decision making both on and off the pitch.

Khawaja's wrongly given out decision was shown by DRS to be not out but for some unknown reason the third umpire upheld the original decision, ergo officials doing it wrong, not DRS

With the Pitersen decision, hot spot didn't show anything but there was a definite sound that came at the point the bat would have made contact with the ball. If DRS cannot categorically prove that the on field decision was wrong then the decision cannot be overturned, its pretty simple and sensible.

You seem to have a bug bear with it, god knows why because the decisions that it has got right or overturned don't seem to being picked up.

The only change I would make is the one that India are considering if they are to accept DRS, which they seem to be coming around to. In that if an LBW decision is reviewed then you do not lose an appeal if the the review shows the result to be "umpires call", that is sensible to me as it's an extremely fine line at that point.

DRS has overall improved the decisions being made, its onw an integral part of the game, a few howlers from officials don't change that, at the end of the day its the human error, not the technology

So yes, let's carry on using it then

djdhrubs

I don't disagree with a lot of what you've said. But DRS can be at 'fault' can't it? When a batsman can be dismissed because of a sound, but there's no white mark on hotspot, isn't that a DRS error? It introduces doubt, doesn't it? Maybe there's another reason for the sound?

Then, when a system confuses the people using it, you can't say it's fulproof can you? There have been occasions when there's enough evidence to overturn the umpire's decision, but it hasn't been overturned. Yes that's a human error, but only because of the mixed messages DRS is throwing up.

If people don't know how to use the technology properly, even if the technology is good, it shouldn't be used.

Maybe a period of review is appropriate whilst 3rd umpires practice getting their decisions right.

Lee

I agree that the officials are the ones causing a problem with DRS in their inability to use it correctly but I can see where djdhrubs is coming from.

If hotspot doesn't pick up all edges then it is faulty and shouldn't be used. The excuse in the past has been an edge might not show up on a hot sunny day but that's not the case today (hopefully it'll pour down anytime soon )

As it happens, with the help of snicko, it looks like the right decision was given