Ravichandran Ashwin not only grabbed attention with his bowling on the second day of the third India vs New Zealand Test in Mumbai on Saturday, but also with a stunning catch of Daryl Mitchell. India needed to dismiss New Zealand to as low a total as possible in the second innings. Spinners Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja did the job to perfection but Mitchell and Will Young resisted well. It ultimately boiled down to a great catch by Ashwin to break the stand.
In the final session of day two's play, Mitchell danced down the pitch off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling to hit a shot down the ground. But he couldn't get the distance as the ball swirled in the sky, and was grabbed by Ashwin, who ran 19m backwards from long-on and kept his eyes on the ball to complete a fantastic catch, as India got the important scalp of Mitchell.
The catch was called by many social media users as the 'greatest catch' of Ashwin's career.
Dinesh Karthik, long-time teammate of Ashwin in India and Tamil Nadu team, had a cheeky question to Ashwin over the catch.
“For all the flak you've given me overs the years, I don't think I've dropped many (catches). 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 I've got great hands, so I trusted my hands to go through with it,” Ashwin replied to Karthik.
Apart from picking a stunning catch, Ashwin also took three wickets, all of which came off the carrom ball, which got a lot of turn and purchase off the pitch. “The game itself is divided into two halves. The one from the pavilion end and the other side, the wicket is responding very differently.
“It's slightly flatter from the one where we are bowling from the dressing room side, the bounce is much lesser, so I thought I will try and use it the other way. The batters are also knowing that it's easier to take me on from this side. So I wanted to give something different,” he added.
With IANS inputs