Hardik Pandya's decision to include Washington Sundar in India's playing XI for the first T20I against New Zealand came handy for the Men in Blue on Friday (January 27). India's star all-rounder Sundar put up a show with the ball as he snared two back-to-back wickets to give India a solid start. Not just that Sundar also grabbed one of the best catches off his own bowling to send New Zealand's batter Mark Chapman packing without even opening his account at the JSCA stadium in Ranchi. The 23-year-old off spinner already had dismissed New Zealand's opener Finn Allen for 35 off 23 in that over and came back to strike again.
Chapman was facing his very first ball and looked clueless while tackling the ball which was turning away from him and ended up directing the ball towards Sundar. Sundar flew like a bird to grab a one-handed superman catch to leave Chapman in disbelief.
It was the final delivery of the fifth over of New Zealand's innings, Sundar pitched it outside the off-stump and Chapman just checked his shot. The ball stood up in the air and Sundar inched towards his right and launched a full-length dive to pluck the ball. Sundar ended up pouching the ball and soon after he was hounded by teammates as vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav, captain Hardik Pandya to celebrate the wicket. New Zealand were once 43 for no loss and in no time they were teetering at 43/2.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) posted the video of the Sundar's stunning catch which went viral.
Here's the video…
However, New Zealand recovered quickly as Devon Conway (52 off 35) and Daryl Mitchell (59 off 30) steadied New Zealand's boat and helped them post a competitive total of 177/6.
Beside Sundar's two wickets, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav and Shivam Mavi also snared one wicket each for India. Mentioning dew in his toss address, captain Hardik Pandya chose to bowl first saying that it was already visible and with the pitch being a great one to bat, having a score in front of them will help. Skipper Hardik dropped Yuzvendra Chahal from India's Playing XI as Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Singh and Jitesh Sharma also missed out in the T20I series opener.
“We will have a bowl first. Looks like a good track. I can see dew right now. Just go out there and play the best cricket we know. It is a young team. We will focus on playing good cricket. Playing the ODIs before T20Is makes it easy to pass on. For a lot of them it is an experience just being in the team. Yuzi, Mukesh, Jitesh and Prithvi miss out,” Hardik said after India won the toss.
