New Zealand opener Tom Latham was saved by the Decision Review System (DRS) on three occasions during the second day’s play in the ongoing Kanpur Test.
The southpaw was batting on 5, 10 and 50 when DRS came to his rescue. As a result, he became only the second batter after England’s Moeen Ali to overturn three OUT decisions in a Test innings using DRS.
The on-field umpire first gave Latham out during the third over when a delivery from Ishant Sharma wrapped him on the pads. However, the left-hander took a review and replays showed that he got an inside edge onto his pads.
The second instance of Latham being given out took place in the 15th over when Ravindra Jadeja's delivery struck him on the pads. But he immediately opted for the DRS and replays once again confirmed that the ball had hit the inside-edge of his bat.
DRS came to save Tom Latham for the third time during the 56th over of New Zealand’s first innings. This time, R Ashwin was the unfortunate Indian bowler as replays verified that the batter wasn’t caught behind since the bat brushed the front pad instead of the ball.
After seeing India at the receiving end of DRS, New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham took a cheeky dig at the home team.
"If Tommy Latham gets a ton here India might go back to refusing to use DRS at home," Neesham tweeted.
Coming to the match, the visitors scored 129/0 till stumps on Day 2, still trailing India by 216 runs. Kiwi openers did a fine job with the bat, with Will Young (75*) and Tom Latham (50*) scoring unbeaten half-centuries.