ICC's UDRS comes under scanner once again

Chasing 276 for victory, Ireland were in with a great chance, placed at 199 for five in 41.3 overs with Wilson batting on 61 off 62 deliveries and giving him company was all-rounder Alex Cusack. But the complexion of the match changed completely when Wilson was given out LBW to Sammy by an erring Sri Lankan umpire Ashoka De Silva, who has messed up his verdicts in this tournament a couple of times.

De Silva adjudged Wilson lbw to Sammy with a ball that struck the batsman outside the off and was moving in with the seam. Not convinced with the decision, Wilson immediately went for the review and TV replays later showed that the batsman was struck on the pad outside the stumps while he was attempting a late cut and the ball was just about kissing the off stump.

The third umpire in-charge Bruce Oxenford of Australia too was not convinced that Wilson fell at the wrong side of the decision and left the verdict on on-field official De Silva. Even though, De Silva did not change his mind, an agitated Wilson refused to leave the ground which forced the Sri Lankan umpire to again go back upstairs. But in the end, after a review of the review of the original call, the Irish right-hander was given out, which clearly brought UDRS again under the scanner.

Wilson lbw dismissal did not go down well with Ireland skipper William Porterfiled, who said that the verdict eventually cost them the game.

"It cost us the match. The technology is supposed to eradicate mistakes, but in this case it didn't," a visibly upset Porterfield said in the post-match press conference.

"It was a pretty crucial decision. In my opinion they got it wrong. According to me, the UDRS was working so far but if you get decision like this I don't know," he added.
The controversial UDRS came under flak from the onset of the World Cup and as the tournament progressed the situation only became worse for the ICC.

Ironically, UDRS was at the receiving end on numerous occasions in this tournament, including India's matches against England and Ireland.

During the tied India-England Group B match at the same venue on February 27, on-field umpire Billy Bowden stuck to his decision of ruling England's Ian Bell not out for a leg before appeal against him by the Indian team when he was rapped on the pad by Yuvraj.

India called for a review of the decision and technology showed that the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps but for the pad coming in the way. But the point of impact was more than 2.5m from the stumps and the batsman stayed on as Bowden stuck to his original call.

Even batsman Bell felt he was out and started walking back to the dressing room before he was asked to come back to the crease and continue his innings, and the incident created a major furore with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni going to the extent of criticising DRS and the International Cricket Council (ICC) for introducing it in the mega-event.

In the India-Ireland match also Irish batsman Alex Cusack was given out out LBW to Yuvraj Singh even though the point of impact of the ball on the pad was more than 2.5 metres from stumps.

Australian umpire Rod Tucker initially ruled Cusack not out off Yuvraj in the 44th over but after a review appeal by India, he reversed his decision and gave the batsman out though TV replays showed the point of impact at the pad would have been more than 2.5 meters from the stumps.

Cusack, the eighth Ireland batsman to be out and Yuvraj's fifth victim in the match, was well down the track, his backfoot nearly a foot outside the crease and his front foot also well down the track though HawkEye showed the ball would have hit off and middle at a comfortable height.