India’s premier off spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, was in the headlines on Day 2 of the third and the final Test match between India and New Zealand, not for his bowling but his spectacular fielding.
Ashwin, not known as one of the best fielders in the team, took a spectacular catch to dismiss Daryl Mitchell.
Mitchell tried to come down the track and loft Ravindra Jadeja straight down the ground. However, he was not to the pitch of the ball and it turned, hence took the bottom part of the bat.
Ashwin started running back from the mid on region and stays side ways to the ball. He outstretched both his hands and completed a spectacular catch to stun everyone. Ashwin tumbled down but made sure he took the catch perfectly and did not spill it when he hit the ground.
Ravindra Jadeja changed end just before the fall of Daryl Mitchell’s wicket
Just before that over, Jadeja’s end was changed from and he started bowling from the end in which he took his wickets in the first innings and also Ajaz Patel took his five wickets. Ashwin wanted Jadeja to bowl from that end from the very start but captain Rohit Sharma did not show any interest.
At the end of the day, Ashwin talked about the catch and said, “I was just telling myself that it’s going to anyway leave me, I wanted to get as close to the ball as possible and and I’ve got great hands, so I trusted my hands to go through with it.”
New Zealand reached 171 runs for the loss of nine wickets at the end of Day 2 and they have a lead of 141 runs.
Every run matters on this kind of wicket where the ball is turning square and India will hope to pick up the remaining one wicket soon at the start of the day. Then, it will be on to the batters to get one win for India in the series and save their face.
