IND vs NZ | Twitter cheers as impeccable Jadeja instincts and lazy Kiwi running keeps Indian hopes alive

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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At the elite level of sports where only the most elite talents make it, there is often nothing more precious than game awareness. India have truly been blessed in that aspect in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, whose brilliant fielding abilities once again came to the team's rescue in Pune on Saturday.

India set themselves a target of 359 on Day 3 of the second Test after bowling out New Zealand for 255 within the first hour of play. Resuming from an overnight score of 201/5 with Glenn Phillips and Tom Blundell the incumbent batters, the visitors looked destined to put up a target well beyond the hosts' reach but three quick Ravindra Jadeja scalps saw them go from 231/5 to 241/9. However, the belligerent Phillips remained an imposing figure at the crease and landed some huge blows once he inherited the repsonsibility of handling the tail. The middle-order batter had raced to 48 on the back of four boundaries and two maximums while farming strike from number 11 William O' Rourke as India's desperation for a scalp grew, until it arrived through some more magic from Jadeja's infinte arsenal.

The left-arm spinner tempted Phillips into a big shot in the 70th over by going short and wide, and his counterpart obliged by chipping the roughened red cherry over deep cover. The connection was not good enough to take the ball to the boundary as Washington Sundar chased after it but it allowed O'Rourke and Phillips came back for an easy second run. However, just as the duo were jogging in between the wickets, Sundar suddenly picked up speed to gather the ball in a jiffy and sling an accurate throw towards Jadeja at the non-striker's end. By the time O'Rourke got wind of what was happening, Jadeja had brilliantly redirected the ferocious throw onto the stumps with a lightning quick tap.

Replays showed the batter was short of the crease by the barest of margins, thus leaving Phillips stranded and Indian ecstatic much like Twitterati.

Superb

Legend

Brilliant

Stuns the world

LOL

Done

Fantastic

Bow downto king

Not really

Saviour

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