IND vs NZ: How R Ashwin redeemed his day, first with a stunning catch and then with the wicked use of his carrom ball | Cricket News

The world suddenly felt happier and lighter for Ashwin Ravichandran. He was just withdrawn from the attack, his fingers paining and his heart aching after a spell that promised more and yielded less. In the lonely mid-on perch, he might have been reflecting on his spell, grimacing at the cruel fate, when he saw the ball soar from the toe-end of Daryll Mitchell’s bat. He might have seen redemption in the air-borne ball.
First he paused, the split-second stop to process the flight and the prospective destination of the ball, and charted his path to pouch it. He twed his body side-on. Then he set off, as fast and hard as he could. The angle was still awkward. It’s difficult to run backward in a side-on posture. The balance is flimsy, the ankle could flip, the neck could hurt, even worse you could injure the hamstring. You could drop the catch and resemble a fool.
But Ashwin’s head was clear. He would pocket the ball no matter what. The eyes didn’t waver. His feet did, but he kept his balance. When the ball dropped, he knew he was not under it. But he wouldn’t give up. He flung his hands and grabbed the ball, then plunged to the ground where he ensured he fell on his back rather than the elbow. The landing would have hurt him. It mattered the least.
Second innings NewZealand Batting on Day 2. Final Test against New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium.Express Photo Amit Chakravarty 02-11-24, Mumbai
He scampered back to his feet, threw the ball in the air, as high as he could, and punched the air in delirium. The catch was significant in the context of the game as well as his day. It ended a plucky 50-run stand between Mitchell and Will Young that could have pushed India out of the game, The catch was a kiss of life for Ashwin, because it brightened up his day, which until the moment brought only edges, misses, a sole wicket and stifled gasps. He later recounted the moments to the host broadcaster: “I was just telling myself that it’s going to anyway leave me, I wanted to get as close to the ball as possible and I’ve got great hands, so I trusted my hands to go through with it.”
A different Ashwin emerged from the tumble. His afternoon had begun promisingly with the wicket of Rachin Ravindra, through a wonderful piece of deception in flight and deception. Rachin swept him for a four and assuming he would bowl fuller, rushed down the deck, but the ball dropped a few inches shorter than he figured. Nevertheless, he went through with his stroke. The turn beat his last-gasp remedial measures. Ashwin gleed in joy, without an inkling that his wait for the next wicket would be longer than he had wished for. The Rachin stumping was his first wicket in 129 balls in what has been a rarely unproductive series for him.
But another 46 balls passed for his next scalp. He shuffled his angles, dug into his deep bag of variations, released from different points and areas of the crease, beat the edge of batsmen repeatedly, had an lbw decision overturned. The indelible sight was him raising his hands for celebration and then suspending them mid-air in agony, cursing his wretched luck. He didn’t bowl horribly. But something was missing. Every spell would end with him bowling flatter, shorter and down the leg-side, him trudging to his fielding shaking his head in discontent.
The catch changed his mood. When he came for the next spell, there was something more menacing about him. An extra leap in his step, an extra energy in his run-up, an extra dose of venom in his bowling, and a sense of belief that wickets were round the corner. Glenn Phillips heaved him for a brace of sixes in his first three balls upon return. Never mind, he had designed his next step and the step after. Perhaps, this was the missing mojo, the gift of foresight. He slipped in the carrom ball that bowled Philipps neck and crop. He punched the air with his furious fs.
The rip-roaring carrom ball that spat away like leg-breaks became his weapon of destruction. Another one dismantled the most stubborn thorn in India’s flesh. The ball travelled like a conventional off-break, drifted in and dipped at Young, who impulsively closed the face of his bat, before it deviated in the opposite direction and took the leading edge.
Ashwin completed a straightforward return catch and teed off in celebrations. He later explained his rationale behind the generous use of the carrom ball: “The wicket was responding differently from either end. It’s slightly flatter from the one where we are bowling from the dressing room side, the bounce is much less, so I thought I will try and use it the other way. The batters are also knowing that it’s easier to take me on from this side. So I wanted to give something different.”
The spur behind that something different was the catch that changed the destiny of the game and the catcher.