WATCH | India miss THREE catches in TWO balls to give Rabada extra lives

WATCH | India miss THREE catches in TWO balls to give Rabada extra lives

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BCCI

Dropping catches have become almost a fashion for the Indian cricket team and India’s 14th over on Day 2 summed up the things perfectly. After Virat Kohli dropped a simple catch at slip, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami both had chances on the very next ball but they failed to grasp the ball.

Before coming to the series, India were an all-dominant side at home with bat and ball and literally didn’t give any chance to the opposition teams to even put up a fight. But if there was one area where the home team struggled the most, it was fielding and it was a no-brainer that South Africa wouldn’t give them too many chances if India commit the same error. But now it seems, India has failed to learn from the mistakes of the Cape Town Test and have continued with their fielding blunders in Centurion as well.

In the 104th over of the innings that Ravichandran Ashwin bowled, the offie got the ball to turn away from the left-handed Kagiso Rabada. The South African pacer could only manage to get an edge on the ball and the ball appeared to be headed straight towards Kohli at the first slip. However, much to the frustration of the off-spinner, the Indian skipper was unable to get down on time and even though he got his hand on the ball, Kohli failed to grasp it cleanly.

But like a true warrior, the Tamil Nadu offie changed his plan a bit and shortened the length which extracted a leading edge off Rabada’s bat. In a normal scenario, it would have been an easy catch for Pandya at the point region, but Mohammed Shami came rushing in as well. Maybe it was the incoming Shami or just a drop in concentration but Pandya, who is one of the best fielders in the Indian side, made a proper hash of the situation and the ball went away from him after he failed to collect it. However, India still had another chance as the ball inadvertently moved right in front of the running Shami. But as luck would have it, the Indian pacer couldn’t get his hands on the ball as well as Rabada breathed a sigh of relief. Kohli was clearly frustrated by watching the fiasco and his gesture didn’t leave too much room for any words.

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