Cricketers expressing disappointment at the DRS is not something new but things appeared to be a little different in the third Test between India and South Africa.
A debatable DRS decision had saved South Africa skipper Dean Elgar and it resulted in Indian cricketers expressing their unhappiness straightaway.
After the end of the Ravichandran Ashwin’s over, Indian Test team skipper Virat Kohli went up to the stump mic and said, “Focus on your team as well when they shine the ball, not just the opposition. Trying to catch people all the time.”
Disappointed Indian players
Along with Kohli, Ashwin and Indian vice-captain KL Rahul were furious and expressed their disgruntlement.
"You should find better ways to win Supersport", was Ashwin’s reaction.
Rahul on the other hand, said, “Whole country playing against XI guys."
South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi was vocal about the whole event and said that reactions like these show “a bit of frustration.”
"Reactions like that show a bit of frustration. And sometimes teams capitalise on that. You never really want to show too much emotion, but I guess we could see clearly right there that emotions were high," said Ngidi in the press conference after the end of the third day's play.
"That probably tells us that maybe they are feeling a little bit of pressure. That was a good partnership for us as well. So they really wanted to break that partnership.
"Those feelings ended up showing there. But at the end of the day, I think everyone reacts differently to certain situations and probably what we saw there, probably how those guys were feeling at the time." the 25-year-old pacer explained.
The Indian camp might have been opposing the DRS system vehemently but the hosts had not much to say against it.
“Yes (we trust DRS). I mean, we've seen it on numerous occasions being used all around the world. It's a system in place and that's used in cricket,” the right-arm fast bowler said.
Indian team's reaction
Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, on the other hand, did not want to comment on the matter.
“We saw it, you saw it. I’ll leave that for the match referee to have a look at it. There’s nothing I can comment on it now. We’ve seen it all, just want to move on with the game now,” Mhambrey said.
At the end of third day’s play the hosts were standing at 101 for 2 with 111 more runs to score to win the Test match and seal the series victory as well.
