Axar Patel and India fielding coach T Dilip lavished praise on Yashasvi Jaiswal for his moment of brilliance in the field in his ODI debut for the Men in Blue against England in the series opener. Towards the end of the powerplay, England stood in a comfortable position at 75/1, with Ben Duckett looking to open his arms to maintain a healthy run rate. India needed a breakthrough, and Harshit Rana took the onus of finding the breakthrough. He lured Duckett into mistiming his shot, and the ball continued to travel swiftly in the open space.
Jaiswal, with his eyes fixed on the ball, sprinted towards the landing zone. He dived and got his hands under the ball to take a stunning catch on his debut. With Duckett gone, the floodgates opened, and Harshit removed Harry Brook for a three-ball duck in the same over to reduce England from 75/1 to 77/3.
Axar, who stood in the perfect spot to watch Jaiswal’s catch, praised the youngster for his stunning effort. He even joked about Jaiswal being shy about the catch before sharing a warm hug with him.
“I was in a position where I saw him sprinting from behind, and the way he stretched to take a catch, I saw the whole angle, it was a really good catch…Sharma kyu rha ha yaar (Why are you feeling shy),” Axar said in a video posted by the BCCI.
Dilip, on the other hand, was confident about Jaiswal taking the catch. His only concern was if he could reach the ball in time because of the speed it was travelling at.
“I was on that side, and I saw the ball kept going. I was like, just catch it. One thing is that his hands are good. So I was like, just reach there, you will take the catch,” he said.
While Jaiswal earned plaudits for his stunning effort in the field, he couldn’t leave a mark with the bat. While chasing 249, Jaiswal reeled off three fours but eventually edged it away to Phil Salt in Jofra Archer’s over and returned to the dressing room with a score of 15 (22).
Despite losing Jaiswal early, India managed to complete the chase, courtesy of Shubman Gill (87), Shreyas Iyer (59) and Axar (52) with more than 11 overs to spare.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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