Luck favours the brave and New Zealand opener Tom Latham is the perfect example of this saying. In the ongoing Test against India in Kanpur, Latham survived as many as three wrong umpiring decisions. During two sessions, Latham was given out thrice but every time DRS came to his rescue and the umpire had to change his decision. The southpaw also equalled an unusual record of Moeen Ali as the latter also used DRS thrice to overturn on-field umpire's decision in a Test against Bangladesh in 2016/17. The 29-year-old may become the first batter in Test cricket to use DRS successfully for the fourth time in a Test innings.
Latham along with Will Young put on a strong partnership of unbeaten 129 runs on Day 2. At the end of day's play, Latham was batting at 50 runs while Young was at 75.
New ball scare
Indian pacer Ishant Sharma was bowling with his usual around the stumps angle to the left-handed batter in the third over of New Zealand innings. The ball hit Latham on the pad and the umpire Nitin Menon's finger went up straight away. The inside edge wasn't really evident to the naked eye but the DRS showed that there was an inside edge off the bat before the ball hit his pads..
Latham left fuming
The last ball of 14th over spun sharply from outside off as Latham was looking to play it on the back foot and got stuck on the pads, but off a massive inside edge. Indian players again appealed for LBW and the umpire again gave him out. But, the Kiwi batter was literally livid with the decision and went for the review straightaway. He knew he had hit it, he'd actually smashed that one onto his pad. The third umpire didn't even need UltraEdge to overturn that decision as it was clearly visible that the ball first hit the bat first.
The third escape
On the last ball of the 56th over, Ashwin bowled a flighted delivery that drew Latham forward. The ball turned more than usual and missed the bat. Ashwin thought he had his man and appealed loudly and the umpire raised his finger. Once again, Latham reviewed it immediately because he knew that the sound was of his bat touching the pad after the ball had passed. After seeing the ultraedge when the ball was passing the bat, the third umpire made a final decision and gave Latham not out.
