On the second day of the Indore Test, when Cheteshwar Pujara was determined to save Team India and was proving to be a headache for Australia, Steve Smith got his team back.
Image Credit source: PTI
Correcting your mistakes in the field is the identity and sign of big and successful players. Whether the mistake is in bowling, batting or fielding, it is necessary to improve because these improvements only lead to success. In the India-Australia Test series, veteran batsman Steve Smith is an example of this, who rectified the mistakes made in Nagpur and Delhi Tests in Indore and the result seems to be changing. No, we are not talking about his batting, but about fielding, which started badly but he made up for it with a surprising catch.
On Thursday, March 2, on the second day of the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy being played in Indore, Australia took a step towards victory, in which the deadly bowling of its veteran spinner Nathan Lyon played a big role. Lion took 8 wickets in India’s second innings and bundled out Team India for just 163 runs. In this way, Australia has got a target of only 76 runs to win.
Smith changed the game with one hand
Not only did Steve Smith, who was captaining the Australian team in this match, impress with his decisions, on the second day he also played a big role in stopping Team India from returning to the match with his fielding. Team India’s wickets were falling from one side but from the other side Cheteshwar Pujara stood like a wall and all the efforts of Australia were failing. There was a need to do something special and Smith did it.
Steve Smith pic.twitter.com/5zZeqUQRXA
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Lions, who have already made Pujara their victim many times, once again came to complete this task. The ball going towards his leg stump hit the edge of Pujara’s bat and a sharp catch went down the leg side. Smith had already positioned himself there and ended Pujara’s innings by diving to catch this extremely fast and difficult catch with one hand.
Catches were leaked in Nagpur and Delhi
Pujara got out after scoring 59 runs and it also gave Australia a chance to get the remaining wickets quickly. Due to his excellent fielding in the slips, Smith, who took many excellent catches, looked bad on this front in this series. He had dropped 3 catches in the Nagpur Test, while also made a mistake in the Delhi Test. In such a situation, with this one catch, Smith made up for those mistakes.
Khwaja is not far behind
By the way, not only Smith, but Usman Khawaja also played a big role for the team on this front. At the beginning of the third session, Australia were struggling to dismiss Shreyas Iyer, who gave India the lead by hitting quick boundaries. Shreyas then played a ball from Mitchell Starc towards short midwicket, where Khawaja dived to the left and took a tremendous catch and broke a dangerous partnership.