There was anger in the Indian camp after umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould decided to call off play for the day because of a “dangerous pitch” leaving the future of the third Test in considerable doubt.
It is learnt that the Indian camp felt the pitch was no more hazardous when Dean Elgar got hit late in the day than when M. Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane took all those blows on the body.
Moreover, the Indians think the ball that struck Elgar did not rear from a good length area which would indeed have made it unnegotiable.
The meeting between the umpires, the match referee and the two captains, it is believed, was quite heated with Virat Kohli vehemently arguing for the match to go on, with his team having a rare chance of an away win.
The feeling in the Indian camp is that if the umpires indeed wanted to stop play they could have done it earlier when the Indian batsmen were getting hit on the chest, glove, forearm, and the box because of the pitch’s inconsistent bounce.
What is the future of the Test? Under rule 6.4 of the ICC, once the umpires and the match-referee have stopped play because of a surface that is “dangerous for play”, the match can resume only if both the captains give their nod for the same. Otherwise it will be abandoned as a draw.
There is a provision for the pitch to be repaired, if both skippers want to, but that is unlikely to happen in this case since it would give the team batting last, South Africa, an unfair advantage on the chase. Kohli would not want South Africa to bat on a pitch that is easier for batting than what it was for his side.
