Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has taken a sly dig at the Indian fielders for dropping multiple catches in the third ODI against England in Pune.
It was a riveting series that brought an end to the international cricketing season in India. After beating England 3-1 in the Tests and 3-2 in the T20Is, India completed a clean sweep as they won the ODI series 2-1. After winning the first ODI after coming back from behind, India were thrashed in the second ODI as England chased down 337 with 6.3 overs to spare.
The third ODI was a nail-biter as the Virat Kohli-led side eked out a seven-run win to take the series. India’s opening stand and the firepower of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya propelled the hosts to a score of 329. It seemed a little under par, but the Indian bowlers kept pegging away with wickets, and even Sam Curran’s brilliant 95 not out wasn’t enough to take England over the line.
India’s fielding wasn’t at its best, and throughout the 50 overs, they were presented quite a few opportunities. They missed a few runout chances (not hitting the stumps direct) and dropped as many as four catches.
Ben Stokes was dropped in the fifth over the innings. Stokes skied one off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but Hardik Pandya dropped that chance at mid-off, which was a pretty straight-forward one. He dropped another one in the 34th over at long-off, and this time, Sam Curran was lucky. Curran was batting on just 22 at that stage and India almost paid a heavy price as the left-handed all-rounder almost won England the game single-handedly.
In the penultimate over of the game, there were successive drops off Hardik Pandya’s bowling. Shardul Thakur dropped Mark Wood at mid-wicket while T Natarajan dropped a skier and Sam Curran got another life.
