"Their biggest mistake was made at the start, when Tiffin announced that the match would be 49-overs a side. Fitting that many in after losing 45 minutes at the start was always overly optimistic and, given a 10-minute tweak at lunch, 45 overs-a-side would have been about perfect."

'The Guardian' was also scathing in its criticism of how the game went about and said, "The match was delayed by 45 minutes for morning mist, but nonsensically the overs were reduced only by one over per side to 49. By 4.30pm, the light was predictably fading, and even though England's spinners were bowling, umpires Russell Tiffin and Amiesh Saheba offered India bad light and victory by the dreaded Duckworth-Lewis calculations.”

"Appoint an umpire called Tiffin to a match involving India and England and it is to be expected that he comes over all 'old colonial' and stops for tea at 4.30," the newspaper fumed.

'The Independent' felt the umpires robbed England of what could have been a hard-fought and deserving win. "The Kanpur smog ruined Englands chances of fighting their way back in to the seven match series when the umpires offered India's batsmen the light with the game delicately placed.

"India still required 43 in nine overs with five wickets in hand when the match officials deemed the conditions not to be fit, a decision that robbed England the chance of a victory they had worked so hard to achieve," the daily wrote.

'The Times' echoed the sentiment and said the officials' surprised one and all with their decisions despite being well aware of the weather conditions in the Indian city.

... contd.