Dropped catches are never a pleasant sight to the fielding side. India dropped 6-7 easy ones in the Leeds Test, and eventually, went on to lose by five wickets. As the series progressed, the Indian catching improved, and so did the results. But what went downhill was — England’s catching. By the time the fifth Test at the Oval came, not only the English fielders were a tired lot, but seemed to have lost their agility.
Yashasvi Jaiswal Handed Two Lifelines
As a result, in the third innings of the match — they went on to drop four easy chances, and counting.. that gave multiple lifelines to the Indian side. It all started in the fourth over of the innings — when on the bowling of Gus Atkinson, Yashasvi Jaiswal was dropped by Harry Brook in the second slip.
Another drop came in the 14th over, this time on the bowling of Josh Tongue, and Jaiswal was the batter again. This time the fielder was Liam Dawson, who dropped a sitter at long leg. Then in the very next over, on the bowling of Jamie Overton, Sai Sudharsan was put down by Zak Crawley in the slips.
England Fielders Drop 4 Catches
On the third morning, Crawley was the culprit again, as he missed the chance of Akash Deep – the nightwatchman. That chance came on the bowling of Tongue again. Those drops meant, India had surpassed the 100-run lead mark, for the loss of only two wickets, where they could have been 4-5 down easily. For the record, hosts have 18 drops this series, tied with India.
In the context of the match, Jaiswal’s drops came at a time, when he was batting in his 20s, and then 40s. Not only they brought him back to form, but paved the way for a huge Indian total. Earlier, India had lost the wickets of KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan, with the likes of Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar yet to come.
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