Mumbai, Nov 2, 2024
On an exhilarating day two of the third Test at the Wankhede Stadium, where 15 wickets fell, veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin wowed everyone by claiming a sensational catch of the dangerous Daryl Mitchell.
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.
“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,” said Ashwin in a chat with broadcasters at the end of day’s play.
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 New Zealand ending day two’s play at 171/9, Ashwin felt India will wrap it up quickly on day three, adding that the chase for the hosts’ will not entirely be a cakewalk. “Hopefully not many, we should wrap it up with one or two runs here and there. Any runs saved in this innings is going to be much more critical for us when we chase it down.”
“It’s not going to be easy, we’ll have to bat really well. I expected a lot more bounce and speed from this Mumbai pitch, it has been quite slow which is a surprise for me. It’s not a typical Bombay pitch, but much slower than usual,” Ashwin concluded.(Agency)
