On-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena came in the firing line of the fans, commentators and viewers alike after he was spotted gesturing to the England pacer Josh Tongue that the Indian batter Sai Sudharsan had got a bat before the delivery hit his pads after he went for an appeal on the opening day of the fifth and final Test at the Oval. Dharmasena, with both his index fingers, gestured that Sudharsan had gotten something on it, thereby aided Tongue and stand-in skipper Ollie Pope not to go for a review.
However, Dharmasena's actions didn't go unnoticed. The Hindi commentators mentioned that Dharmasena shouldn't have done that, especially in the DRS era when the teams waste reviews often just to determine if batter has hit it or not in some cases. The fans, too, made their outrage noticeable. Take a look at the reactions.
Apart from that moment, the on-field umpiring for the day was sharp and on point. Ollie Pope did get his first-ever review successful after the umpire didn't give Yashasvi Jaiswal's LBW in England's favour earlier, but the hosts got their man as Gus Atkinson on return got immediate reward.
Sudharsan negotiated a substantial period of swing and seam bowling at the Oval green top before a Josh Tongue peach induced an outside edge from the left-hander. There was nothing he could have done on that delivery, but it had his name written on it. That was a surprise for Sudharsan as well, as Tongue had been pretty indisciplined with his line and length all day. A few overs later, Tongue produced another such delivery, taking Ravindra Jadeja's edge on the way to the keeper.
Karun Nair scored a well compiled half-century, his maiden, apart from that triple ton nine years ago, to keep India on course of a score in excess of 260-270, which could be a good one for this track.