The 2023 Australia tour of India is underway and after winning the Test series 2-1, India now hosts the Aussies for a 3-match ODI series. They won the first game at Wankhede and then, the action moved to Vizag where India was asked to bat first. And much like the first game, India saw themselves lose a number of wickets up front.
This time, it was Mitchell Starc who destroyed the top order, picking all of the first four wickets to fall including Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and KL Rahul. But we’re writing this to talk about the fifth wicket to fall, where the Aussie captain Steve Smith picked up a one-handed beauty at first slip, diving full length to pick up the wicket of Hardik Pandya.
Steve Smith catch in 2nd ODI vs India
Sean Abbott was just brought into the attack and he was bowling his second over in the 10th over of India’s innings, when he managed to find the outside edge of Hardik Pandya. It was the first ball of the over and the edge flew to the right of Smith, who flew like Superman and stuck one hand out, picking up another classic catch in the slip cordon.
He’s always known to be a great catcher in cricket but this one was an amazing dive, very much parallel to the ground. The on-air commentators mentioned that it wouldn’t have been humanly possible to dive any further to his right than he did here. And this comes after already taking another very sharp catch in the same position, to dismiss Rohit Sharma in the match earlier in the day. See the catch here:
Unreal catch by Steve Smith pic.twitter.com/MWMuNJmG7w
— Sexy Cricket Shots (@sexycricketshot) March 19, 2023
And he even picked a similar one-handed screamer in the Test series, so we’re not surprised that Smith pulled off this spectacular one-handed effort. Social media was immediately ablaze after he picked up this catch, which reduced India to 49/5, losing half their side in the first 10 overs of the game itself.
Pandya has been in great form after leading his side to the IPL 2022 title last year and he’s a crucial part of this Indian squad. His wicket would’ve been a super important one for the visitors and it took a brilliant effort from the captain. Pandya was dismissed for 1(3) and put India further into a hole in this game, as the Aussies aim to get level in the ODI series.
Taking blinders with one-hand: Steve Smith. pic.twitter.com/qguko4EmHs
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 19, 2023
India won the first game by 5 wickets and even in that game, they lost half their side in barely any time at all. However, they proved in that game that they’ve got the character to get through, even though they lost wickets in a flurry early on. For similar stories on the 2023 Australia tour of India and other cricketing stories from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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