Ravindra Jadeja lauded Virat Kohli for his amazing one-handed catch in the second slip off his bowling in the first ODI which the Indian team won by 5 wickets in a dominating manner in Barbados on July 27.
Rohit Sharma had won the toss and chosen to bowl first on a pitch that aided the spinners and apart from Windies captain Shai Hope (43) and Alick Athanaze, none of the other batters stood a chance against Kuldeep Yadav (4/6) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/37) as they were bundled for 114 runs.
In response, Ishan Kishan made full use of opening the innings and scored a quick 52 runs as India won the match by 5 wickets in 22.5 overs.
One of the highlights of the match was India’s fielding as Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja took two amazing catches in the field.
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Kohli’s catch came in the 18th over of the West Indies innings, when Jadeja got a good amount of turn and found an outside edge of Romario Shepherd’s bat, who tried to drive the ball. Virat Kohli stationed at second slip, showed great reflexes and took a one-handed stunner going low to his right.
Responding to the catch, Ravindra Jadeja lauded the former India captain.
“Mai har baar logon ki bowling pe catch pakadta hun, meri bowl pe bhi koi itna catch pakadega ye dekh kar acha laga (Generally, I take such catches on other’s bowling, but it felt good that somebody took it on my bowling),” Jadeja told Kuldeep Yadav in a video posted by BCCI.TV.
“Virat Kohli took a fabulous catch. It was low and Kohli held it wonderfully. He didn’t get any time to react, he got only one second to react and he grabbed it. Even Shubman also grabbed a nice low catch. On wickets like these, fielders need to support the bowlers and that in turn helps to boost the confidence of players, because you need to convert those half chances,” he added.
On the other hand, Kuldeep, who got the Player of the Match for his 4/6, credited the fast bowlers as well as all three pacers, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, and debutant Mukesh Kumar picked one wicket apiece.
“Fast bowlers bowled well. Mukesh bowled well on his debut. You ran through their middle order and then I took the rest. We bowled well as a unit,” said Kuldeep Yadav.
Jadeja admitted that it was a difficult pitch to bat on as the ball was spinning too much.
“Plan was to be economical. It got more difficult in the second innings. The ball was not coming onto the bat easily. It was spinning a lot. As a unit we hunted in pairs,” said Jadeja.
