In the Champions Trophy final held in Dubai, India’s fielding performance was not up to par after New Zealand chose to bat first. Indian fielders dropped a total of four catches at critical moments during the game. These missed chances occurred in two instances of consecutive overs, initially with the new ball and later during the middle overs when Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were bowling their left-arm spin.
The New Zealand batsmen who were given reprieves thanks to dropped catches were Rachin Ravindra (twice), Daryl Mitchell, and Glenn Phillips. Here’s a breakdown of the dropped catches:
6.3 – Mohammed Shami bowled to Ravindra, single run. Shami attempted a catch off his own bowling with his fingertips, but it was dropped. It appeared the ball was going high to his left as he was in his follow-through. He tried to catch it with his fingers pointing upwards, but the ball went past him. Ravindra, attempting to punch a fullish delivery back to the bowler, miscued the shot.
Ravindra was on 28 runs at this point and was dropped again in the following over, when he was on 29 runs:
7.1 – Varun bowled to Ravindra, two runs. Another catch dropped. Shreyas Iyer ran to his right from deep midwicket and attempted a sliding catch. He reached the ball and made contact, but it slipped out of his hands as he stretched out fully.
However, these dropped catches didn’t prove too costly for India at this stage, as Kuldeep Yadav bowled Ravindra in the 11th over for 37 runs.
34.5 – Patel bowled to Mitchell, two runs. Rohit Sharma dropped a catch at midwicket with a one-handed attempt. He jumped and got his right hand to the ball but couldn’t hold on to it, tipping it over. It was considered a difficult chance as the ball was hit powerfully.
35.6 – Jadeja bowled to Phillips, single run. Shubman Gill dropped a catch this time, running to his left from deep square leg. He slid and got both hands on the ball low to his left, but it popped out and went to the ground. Phillips was on 27 runs when this happened.
This dropped catch of Phillips also did not immediately hurt India much, as he was dismissed for 34 runs a few overs later. However, Daryl Mitchell capitalized on his dropped chance and went on to score a half-century, eventually getting out for 63 runs in the 46th over.
