Dhoni infuriated by UDRS decision

Indian Skipper MS Dhoni was infuriated by Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) when Ian Bell survived an lbw referral during the thrilling World Cup group match in Bangalore; Dhoni cursed the technology as he called it an tarnishing of human decision making and technology.

At the start of 25^th over of their run-chase, England were 20 runs ahead of India in comparison, Then Yuvraj Singh struck Bell, who were stretching forward attempting one of those adventurous paddle sweeps, on the pad, but the New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden declined the appeal. Dhoni appealed for decision review. The slow motion replay showed up on the giant screen and everyone watched it with naked eye: not a no ball, hitting in the line of the stumps and striking the wicket. The stadium roared with delight expecting Bell to be on his way to dressing room and he had already begun.

The last criterion that was showing up on the screen indicated the distance that the ball woyld have to travel from point of impact to the stumps was more than 2.5 meters, a rule most on the ground did not know about it, not even England players. The 2.5m law has been put into place because it is from that point onwards that the accuracy of the ball tracking technology begins to reduce. That last piece of information was conveyed to Bowden by the third umpire and he stuck to his original decision. Not out. Too far down the pitch.

Dhoni was annoyed by this decision and it was difficult for him to accept that both technology and human intervention played a part in the decision which allowed Bell to survive and make another 52 runs, he made 69 from 71 balls totally. The 2.5m ruling astonished most of the players, the England skipper Andrew Strauss being informed about it during the review itself. He said, "It seems that if you are that far down the pitch it needs to be hitting middle stump to be given out. I didn't know that was part of the rules. "Obviously Bell was lucky to get away with it."

However when asked to Dhoni about the 2.5 meter rule, he could hide his aggravation. He said, "Well, if the Hawkeye says it is going to hit the stump, and it's going to hit the middle stump, then there is no reason why the distance really matters.

The ICC playing conditions relating to this part of the system come under Process of Consultation No. 3.3 (i). It states that if a 'not out' decision is being reviewed and the distance from impact to the stumps is greater than 2.5m then the third umpire passes this information to the on-field official along with: the distance from the wickets of the point of impact with the batsman, the approximate distance from the point of pitching to the point of impact, and whether the ball is predicted to the hit the stumps.