India captain Rohit Sharma, on Thursday (January 25), took a brilliant catch to send back Ollie Pope in the ongoing first Test of the five-match Test series between India and England.
The series-opener started on a very positive note for the visitors. Their captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first. Openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett took an aggressive approach to help England race away to 50 in just the 11th over. However, it did not take India long to turn things around.
After pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj failed to get the opening breakthrough, Rohit Sharma introduced spinners and the move paid off immediately. Ravichandran Ashwin broke the opening stand by dismissing Duckett to give India the much-needed early breakthrough. Duckett departed for an entertaining innings of 35 from just 39 balls.
Rohit Sharma takes brilliant catch:
Soon after Duckett’s departure, Ollie Pope returned to the hut too thanks to a brilliant piece of work from Rohit Sharma in the slip cordon. On the fourth ball of the 15th over, Pope was facing Ravindra Jadeja. The right-handed batsman went for a push forward with hard hands and ended up edging the ball towards the slip cordon.
The ball was looking set to fall just in front of Rohit Sharma. However, the India skipper reacted sharply and dived forward to get his fingers under the ball to complete a stunning catch. Pope departed after scoring just 1 run.
Watch the catch from Rohit Sharma:
https://twitter.com/expert42983/status/1750386159858131179?
Talking about the game, England were reeling at 65 for 3 at the time of writing this report. Crawley was the third England wicket to fall. The opener was dismissed by Ashwin for 20. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were fighting it out in the middle for the visitors.
England are eyeing their first Test series win in India since 2012/13 season. Incidentally, India have not lost a Test series at home since that defeat and will be hoping to continue their winning run.
