Follow UsAt 12/0, the West Indies openers – Tagenarine Chanderpaul and John Campbell – were more than confident of seeing through the new ball pressure, in Ahmedabad on October 4 (Saturday). But those ambitions vanished within seconds when square-leg fielder Nitish Kumar Reddy pulled off a stunning catch to send back Chanderpaul.
In the eighth over of the innings, the left-hander absolutely creamed one through the leg-side region, and in real time, it looked like the ball was running away from Reddy’s strong hand. But that’s where the young all-rounder shocked Chanderpaul and the other Indian fielders, moving swiftly across to pull off a two-handed beauty. Chanderpaul walked back after scoring just eight off 23 balls, failing to make use of the solid start.
It gave India a much-needed breakthrough, as Ravindra Jadeja later converted one into two, removing the other opener, Campbell. The left-handed opener played a tame shot that took the inside half of the bat straight into the hands of the forward short-leg fielder, Sai Sudharsan.
West Indies went from 12/1 to 24/2 in no time, as they still trail by 262 runs on day three of the first Test. India still need eight wickets to complete a dominant win, as they add to their points tally for a march towards the World Test Championship (WTC) final.