KL Rahul’s breathtaking catch helped India get rid of Steve Smith (BCCI Twitter)
KL Rahul completed a sensational diving catch on Hardik Pandya’s delivery to dismiss Steve Smith in the first ODI against Australia
KL Rahul donned the gloves during the first ODI between India and Australia in Mumbai and the under-fire batter justified his inclusion with a sublime catch to dismiss Australian skipper Steve Smith.
Ever since Rishabh Pant’s car accident ruled him out of contention, KL Rahul has taken over the wicketkeeping duties in ODIs, while KS Bharat was preferred by Rohit Sharma during the recently concluded Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023, which India won by 2-1.
Rahul didn’t have a good showing with the bat in the Test series, before being dropped from the side for the final two Test matches, he did redeem himself by making a case to be retained in the ODI side with his wicketkeeping skills.
Even though Ishan Kishan was also named in India’s playing XI in Rohit’s absence in the first ODI, Rahul was given the wicketkeeping duties and he did not disappoint.
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The 29-year-old did miss an opportunity for a run-out shortly after Smith had only just come out to bat as Mohammed Siraj removed Travis Head to draw first blood for India.
However, Rahul redeemed himself by completing a diving catch to dismiss Smith on 22 helping India break a crucial partnership between Mitchell Marsh and the Aussie stand-in captain.
After Head’s early dismissal, Smith and March had started to pick up runs at will thereby frustrating Indian bowlers. Pandya took the onus upon himself to provide his side with a key breakthrough and he did, along with some help from KL Rahul.
In the third ball of the 13th over of Australia’s inning, Pandya bowled a fuller delivery, which stayed pretty wide but Smith didn’t use his footwork instead tried to cut and ended up giving away a healthy edge.
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Rahul dived to his right and completed a sensational catch.
Watch KL Rahul’s catch to dismiss Steve Smith:
The dismissal allowed India to put the brakes on Australia’s innings as Marsh completed his fifty shortly afterwards Smith’s departure.
After making his return from injury, Marsh was promoted up the order after David Warner failed to recover from the injury he sustained in the Test series.
Marsh looked in good touch he got his fifty in 51 balls, helping Australia go past the 100-run mark at the Wankhede Stadium. However, he was dismissed at 81, courtesy of good work from Ravindra Jadeja.
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