TEST MATCH TALKING POINTS: Does DRS needs another facelift to give bowlers a fighting chance?

England were bowled out for 187 on the first day of the second Test against West Indies. SAM MORSHEAD picks out the key issues at the end of play...

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DRS orders

When Joe Denly survived an lbw review very early on the first morning in Antigua, the debate about what should and what should not constitute leg-before cranked itself into gear once again.

It has been a little more than two years since the ICC last amended the referral system but perhaps it is about time the governing body took another look.

At present, at least half of the ball needs to be shown by the tracking technology to be destined to hit the stumps for an appeal to be successful. In Denly’s case, the England batsman was about a half-a-seam shy of being told to shuffle on back to the pavilion.

Dale Steyn, the South Africa quick, was watching from home and immediately took exception.

“Nothing against the umpires but I don’t understand how an lbw can be both out and not out depending on his decision,” he wrote on Twitter, after posting a screenshot of the DRS graphic from the delivery in question.

“Surely if it’s hitting the stumps, no matter what the percentage, it’s out?”

Steyn’s point rings true in many ways. While the ICC regulations allow for a margin of error in the tracking equipment, it still seems to offer an awful lot of benefit to the batsman.

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Ben Foakes is bowled

Here, with the naked eye, most inside the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium would have thought Denly was plumb in front and replays suggested as much, the ball darting on at little more than shin height. It might not have taken leg stump out of the ground had it hit, but it would certainly have created more of a thud than a tickle.

Yet Denly survived, cueing plenty of relieved thumbs-up from England players on the team balcony. Those same players, no doubt, would have been livid had they been in the field at the time and on the receiving end of both a poor decision from Chris Gaffaney and the subsequent ruling by DRS.

And rightly so.

In these situations, the margin for error is largely redundant. Even had DRS been 30 per cent off - which in itself would present cricket with a huge problem - the ball would still have hit. Denly should still have had to be on his way.

In a game where batsmen can switch-hit and reverse ramp and dance about their crease like Michael Flatley after one too many mojitos, yet bowlers must still fill out forms for the umpires when they want to change their angle of attack, there must be a way of creating more of a balance.

Changing the DRS directives is one way of doing just that. It would not be turning the sport on its head but it would make it fairer. If the ball is going to hit the stumps, regardless of whether the umpire has called out, not out or bingo, the batter should be gone.

Pitch imperfect

In the first hour or so on day one, the strip at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium appeared borderline dangerous.

The Alzarri Joseph delivery which got rid of Joe Root leaped off a length like an Olympic gymnast, generating almost a metre more bounce than other balls which pitched in similar areas, while Ben Stokes was later struck on the hand by another one that found a trajectory that would have left Pythagoras perplexed.

Antigua has had its issues with stadium conditions in the recent past - remember the 2009 Test had to be relocated back to the old Rec because of the weight of sand on the Sir Viv outfield - and there may have been some early concern that a similar situation was threatening to unfold.

Thankfully for all involved, though, the inconsistent nature of the track only added to the theatre.

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Jonny Bairstow reaches his half-century

Brutal, brilliant, Bairstow

At lunch Nasser Hussain described it as “one of Bairstow’s best Test knocks”. Not one prone to hyperbole, it was quite some statement from the former England captain.

After all, Bairstow was on just 52 at the time, on the opening day of a Test match, and with every chance of being sent packing quickly after lunch.

Yet Hussain’s analysis packed the same sort of punch as the No.3’s innings, and had just as much substance.

On a wicket which was pumping out all sorts faster like an over-eager Bertie Bassett, Bairstow seemed to be in a world of his own. Had it not been for the Yorkshireman, who ended the session with more than 70 per cent of his team’s runs, England could quite easily have found themselves choking on their own inadequacies against a raw, ruthless Windies attack.

It was an obnoxious, teenage sort of innings, a rebuttal of authority and status quo. Bairstow cut and drove hard-handed but with perfect timing, littering the offside boundary, dominating during a session in which West Indies were largely dominant and ending with 22 runs more than his expected total (xR), according to CricViz.

He could not go on after the interval but his usefulness at No.3 was there for all to see. The position demands adaptability and understanding of situations, and Bairstow exhibited both in technicolour. Without that intelligent batting, England could have been staring down the barrel of another double-figure score.

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Joe Root is done by a rising delivery

The Mo the Merrier

It was not the prettiest innings you will ever see but it was effective.

After a wait of 10 knocks, stretching back to the final Test of the English summer against India, Moeen Ali went past 50 in combative fashion.

There were ungainly hooks and haphazard swipes, but just as many glorious drives, and England will hope that after a meagre run with the bat Moeen might just have popped himself back into joint.

The allrounder’s half-century was only his second in Tests since August 2017 - he has registered nine single-figure scores in the same period.

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