IND vs NZ, 3rd Test: The Indian cricket fans started chanting 'Ashwin, Ashwin' after the veteran spinner took a brilliant catch and thus got Daryl Mitchell out. While standing at mid-on, Ashwin ran backward and caught Mitchell's brilliant shot in Ravindra Jadeja's over. Mitchell, who tried to go down the ground, mistimed the shot and the ball hit his bat's bottom, after going up in the sky. Ashwin took the catch by running sideways and also tried to avoid an over-the-shoulder catch.
He dove brilliantly and completed the catch halfway through the air but eventually controlled it when he was almost about to drop the catch. The fans began cheering loudly and also lauded his athleticism. His catch provided the team the much-needed breakthrough by breaking this partnership and how it changed gears. His brilliant technique was one of the important factors that showed why he was such an important player for the team.
Watch the video here:
Key stand broken
The 50-run partnership off 83 balls between Daryl Mitchell and Will Young was ended as Mitchell too was shocked after getting out. His gritty knock of 21 runs off 44 balls went in vain as Ashwin made sure to make significant contributions in any way. After being wicket-less during the first innings, Ashwin dismissed Rachin Ravindra. He took this much-needed wicket on the last ball of the 14th over during the third innings, where Rachin tried to play a slog sweep and mistimed the shot and was thus stumped by Rishabh Pant.
Jadeja, who took a five-for during the first innings, fired with the ball once again as he got Tom Blundell out and the hosts took two wickets in quick succession. The Tom Latham-led were leading by 143 runs at stumps on the second day.