West Indies finally looked to have gotten a steady start in this series when a bad twist of luck—and a moment of great fortune for India—flicked the switch once again as John Campbell was caught in a bizarre manner by Sai Sudharsan at the stroke of tea on day 2 of the second IND vs WI Test in Delhi.
The visitors had had opening stands of 12 runs each in the two innings in the IND vs WI 1st Test in Ahmedabad. West Indies would have wanted a solid start from their openers after India piled up 518/5, declaring a little after an hour into the second session on day 2.
Today, on a good batting surface at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Campbell and Tagenarine Chanderpaul staved off seven overs from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, scoring 17 runs without much trouble.
Campbell, enterprisingly, paddle-swept Ravindra Jadeja’s first ball of the innings for a boundary to the fine leg region. In order to put Jadeja under pressure, the left-handed Campbell went for a slog sweep to India’s left-arm spinner.
However, a cruel slice of bad luck halted Campbell’s innings. And that is despite his nailing his slog sweep off Jadeja.
To a full ball from Jadeja, Campbell went low and middled his slog sweep. However, the ball went straight into the shoulder region of Sai Sudharsan, who was fielding as forward short leg and now ducking for cover. Sudharsan, in fact, had moved his eyes away from the ball as soon as Campbell had swung his bat.
The ferociously slammed ball hit his right hand and cramped into the space below his helmet. To the fielder’s credit, despite being struck on his hand and unaware of the ball, Sudharsan managed to quickly grab the ball in his hand before it fell on the ground.
Alas, Campbell was caught, even though he’d timed his shot brilliantly, but placed it straight into Sudharsan’s upper body, the fielder taking the catch even with closed eyes.
It was wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel who was the first one to notice that Sai Sudharsan had taken a freakish catch and began running towards him before Jadeja and others realized the same and joined them in celebrations.
IND vs WI: [Watch] Sai Sudharsan Takes Freakish Catch With Eyes Closed To Dismiss John Campbell
Meanwhile, India declared their first innings in Delhi at a massive total of 518/5 in the second session on day 2. Yashasvi Jaiswal was run out in the first over of the day after adding only two more runs to his overnight score of 173.
Captain Shubman Gill continued his purple patch in Test cricket and recorded his fifth Test century this year. Nitish Reddy and Jurel both reached 40 but not 50.
IND vs WI 2nd Test Playing XIs:
West Indies: John Campbell, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Shai Hope, Alick Athanaze, Jomel Warrican, Tevin Imlach (wk), Justin Greaves, Roston Chase (C), Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre, Jayden Seales
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill (C), Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
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