Cricket
Karthik Krishnaswamy 7y

Slippery Kohli, airborne Mandeep

Cricket, NZ tour of India 2016/17

The tumble

Virat Kohli had just come in, and was batting on 5 off 7 balls when he went on the back foot to work Ish Sodhi to the right of midwicket. As he usually does, he ran the first run at full tilt, calling for two almost as soon as he played the shot. While beginning to turn as he touched down at the bowler's end, he slipped and ended up sprawled in a heap. Slow-motion replays showed his right foot had lost its grip while landing on a grassy patch by the side of the pitch, and revealed his shoe lacked spikes in the heel area.

Southee's slower-ball variety

In the 47th over of India's innings, Tim Southee bowled a short ball to Kedar Jadhav, angling into the body. Failing to spot that Southee had rolled his fingers over like an offcutter, Jadhav swivelled too early, and missed. Next ball, Southee sent short again, this time wide of off stump. With backward point and third man inside the circle, Jadhav's eyes may have lit up, but he quickly realised this was another slower ball, bowled like a legbreak. There was barely any pace on it, and Jadhav, looking to manufacture all the power he could to uppercut over the infielders, failed to make contact for the second time in two balls.

Umesh knocks Guptill over, again

Before this match, Umesh Yadav had twice dismissed Martin Guptill with the new ball in this series. The first time, in Delhi, he had bowled him for a duck with an outswinger that straightened past his outside edge to knock back off stump. Now, in the first over of New Zealand's innings, with Guptill again on 0, Umesh produced another jaffa. This time it pitched on middle stump, on a length that froze Guptill's feet. Then it swung away late, past the outside edge and hit the top of off stump after a little deflection off the back pad.

The flying substitute

Mandeep Singh was the only member of India's squad to not get a game this series. He got a chance to field in the fifth ODI, thanks to Rohit Sharma's pulled quadriceps, and got a chance to show off his prowess at cover point in the second over of the chase. Kane Williamson punched Jasprit Bumrah powerfully off the back foot, and the ball seemed destined for the boundary when Mandeep appeared in its path, throwing himself to his left and stopping it while horizontal, a foot or so off the ground. Next ball, Bumrah bowled closer to Williamson's off stump, and Mandeep showed excellent anticipation to move quickly to his right and stop another firm punch without needing to dive.

The googly

Amit Mishra has looked at the peak of his powers during this series, confounding New Zealand with a number of Test-match deliveries. In Mohali, he had dangled legbreaks that dipped and robbed Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi of their balance which led to their stumping. He did the same in Visakhapatnam too, to Tim Southee, giving MS Dhoni a chance to demonstrate his skills again. But perhaps the most satisfying of his five wickets was that of BJ Watling. It was a proper, old-fashioned legspinner's dismissal, a flighted googly that the batsman simply failed to spot from the hand. Watling came forward to defend and left just enough of a gap between his bat and pad for the ball to snake through and bowl him.

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