A historic moment in Indian domestic cricket as the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS) will be introduced during the business end of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 season. The technology is set to be used in the competition from the semi-final stages starting from February 29, 2020, and will also be available in the finals. This will be the first time that the system will be used to review the decision of the umpires in the premium First-Class tournament. Gujarat, Saurashtra, Bengal and Karnataka are the teams who will battle it out for the elusive trophy. KL Rahul to Play for Karnataka in Ranji Trophy 2019-20 Semi-Final Against Bengal at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Teams will have a maximum four referrals accessible in each innings – contrary to the two reviews available for the teams per innings in Test cricket. However, there will be limited use of the technology as it will not have snicko, hot-spot and the ball-tracker which are widely applied in the cricketing world. Instead, the third umpire will have a slow-motion camera and a pitch map along with a spin vision to assist him while making these decisions. Ranji Trophy 2019-20 Semi-Finals: Bengal to Meet Karnataka, Saurashtra to Face Gujarat in Semis.

‘I welcome the decision of having DRS in Ranji Trophy. The Board should use DRS for the semifinals and finals of all its important tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy’ said Jaydev Shah, Saurashtra Cricket Associate President.

The semi-finals of the tournament will begin on February 29, 2020, when Gujarat will host Saurashtra in the first semi-finals while Karnataka will travel to Bengal for the second game. Saurashtra will be looking to win their first-ever title as they try and look to reach the finals of the showcase event for a second consecutive year which will be held on March 9, 2020.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2020 12:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).