Pakistan v England / Ed Hawkins / 06 February 2012 /

Ed Hawkins crunches the numbers to answer the question: how has technology changed Test cricket?

There was a question posted on Betfair's cricket forum on Monday afternoon wondering whether the Pakistan versus England series had proved the referral system had changed the game forever. "I think so," said the poster, "inevitably batsmen will have to start changing/tweaking techniques".

He is almost certainly right. Batsmen no longer have the luxury of padding up to a spin bowler safe in the knowledge that with a big stride the umpire will not dare raise his finger. Since the system was introduced in 2009, with Test teams being awarded two referrals per innings, the key protagonists in the sport have been left rubbing their eyes, like a baby born into a bright, shiny new world.

Yet we are all learning. It is, indeed, a steep curve but the hardest part has probably passed. You know, that moment when the old players, usually positioned in the comm box, mischievously grumble about "no need for it in my day...we walked if we were out" and how change should be resisted with all one's might. The BCCI? Oh well, there really is no pleasing them.

Perhaps in another two and a bit years we will be better placed to answer the opening gambit. Only now can we have a reasonable stab at it. At Betfair Towers there have been musings on exactly how the Umpire Decision Review System, to give it its full title, impacts the result.

Logic would dictate that we might get more results because more wickets fall with umpires being given a brand new pair of eyes. The counter argument is that these previously unheralded decisions have been cancelled out by the UDRS ridding the game of the umpiring howler. The ICC introduced technology to improve decision making from 91-92% to 96-97%. Right or wrong.

The end game, of course, has a betting angle. In Test matches should we be more confident about laying the draw when the UDRS is in use?

Yes. Our study method is somewhat crude and simple but fascinating nonetheless. Since the UDRS was officially launched in the Test between New Zealand and Pakistan in Dunedin in November 2009 there have been 101 matches played (not including India Tests after they refused to use it) in the 27 months that followed.

Of those games 74.2% produced a result with 25.8% drawn. In the 27 months previous to November 2009, 63% of matches produced results with 30% drawn. That is a sizeable swing. One will not be surprised to learn that there have, on average been more wickets with UDRS than without - 32 per game compared 30. There have been less runs, too - 1,079 compared to 1,108.

As for batsmen having to change their technique, one cannot help but think immediately of one player in particular. Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen, when he burst onto the scene, was an advocate of a big stride forward and a booming front pad sending the ball ballooning away. He knows he can't do that anymore.

It may explain his struggles against spin in this series and in the recent months. Before UDRS Pietersen fell to spinners 36% of the time. Since UDRS that figure has leapt to 44%. Problem, Kevin.

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