And so it came to pass, an hour into the third day’s play, the first sight of Umpire Paul Reiffel fiddling with his ring-piece, brandishing his ball handcuffs and spending five minutes of an extended towel and chill break worrying about gauge, swelling and improper engorgement.
Ball anxiety has been a frustratingly prominent feature of the England-India Test summer. Has any other series been so defined by concerns over the ball? Not chicanery or tampering, but complaints, bitching and even punishable dissent over its general condition and the possible need to change it?
