Australia won the first Test by 159 runs
The West Indies are going through a miserable time in Barbados. The home team looked excellent in the first innings as a bowling unit when they wrapped up World Test Championship finalists Australia for 180 runs.
As a batting unit, they were rescued by captain Roston Chase and keeper-batter Shai Hope after they were five down for 72 runs. The pair added 67 runs for the sixth wicket when tragedy struck.
Chase was given leg before wicket in Pat Cummins’ bowling. Chase, fully confident he had edged it before it hit the pad, went for the DRS immediately.
Even Ultraedge showed when the ball was near the bat, TV umpire Adian Holdstock, after much deliberation, concluded that there was bat involved much to the dismay of the home team.
A few overs later, there was much more pain for them as Holdstock deemed that wicket-keeper Alex Carey had not grounded Shai Hope’s catch and sent back the set batters.
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Chase was on 44 while Hope scored 48 before the two decisions changed the course of the innings. West Indies managed to score just 10 runs more than Australia’s 180.
In the second innings, the middle-order trio of Travis Head (61), Beau Webster (63) and Carey (65) set Windies a target of 301.
Besides Shamar Joseph’s blitz of 44 off 22 balls, none of the West Indies batters were able to put up a fight and were all out for 141.
In the post-match presentation, Chase didn’t hide his frustration on the umpiring errors, saying that there need to be penalties for the match officials for their poor decisions just like players who are reprimanded for their behaviour on the field.
“But then there were so many questionable calls in the game and none of them went our way. I mean, as a player, you’re out there, you’re giving your all, you’re fighting. And then nothing is going your way,” Chase said.
The all-rounder felt that bad umpiring decisions have a huge impact on the players’ confidence and careers.
“One bad decision could make or break a guy’s career. I just think that it should be an even playground in terms of when players step out of line, they’re penalised. I think that there should be some penalty put in place when you have blatant decisions going against you,” he added.
The second Test will be played from July 3 to 7 at the National Cricket Stadium in St George’s, Granada.
