While there are no doubts over Ravindra Jadeja’s caliber as a fielder, the left-handed cricketer produced another fielding effort in the 1st ODI between Indian and Australia to further stamp his candidature among the best fielders in the world. After choosing to bowl first, India put on a clinical performance on the field and bowled Australia out for 188.
Their bowling was equally well complemented by the effort of their fielders but few would come close to the catch that Jadeja took to dismiss Marnus Labuschagne in the 23rd over of the innings being bowled by his spin mate Kuldeep Yadav. While the left-arm leg-spinner bowled a length ball outside the off stump, Labuschagne did not get the kind of connection he was expecting and ended up hitting the ball in the air.
Although it looked like the ball might just fall short of the fielder but Jadeja made good ground and took a blinder of a catch at short third to end Labuschagne’s stay at the wicket.
Even though the hosts managed to bowl the visitors for less than 200 and even broke their own record of taking the least number of deliveries to dismiss the Kangaroos in by doing so in 35.4 overs, they find themselves in a spot of bother in the run chase with Mitchell Starc and Marcus Stoinis hitting the right lengths and forcing the Indian batters to commit mistakes.
Team India are without Rohit Sharma in this match who had opted out due to a family commitment. In his absence, Hardik Pandya is leading the side. However, Rohit will be back for the second and the third ODI of the series which will be played on March 19 and March 22 in Visakhapatnam and Chennai respectively. The players participating in the IPL will then join their respective franchises with the 2023 edition of the competition set to kick off on March 31.
