'It came so quickly and I just stuck my hand out' - Ravindra Jadeja reacts to his spectacular catch on Day 2

Indian team staged a brilliant comeback into the second Test match against New Zealand at Christchurch. After being bowled out for 242 runs in the first innings, with Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari making half-centuries; India made a big comeback in the Kiwi first innings, despite the black caps adding 66 runs for the first innings.

After Latham (52) and Blundell (30) had seemingly neutralized the new ball; Indian bowlers courtesy of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah struck back amazingly. Umesh Yadav, who replaced Ishant Sharma in this match, started by removing Blundell. Williamson followed suit, falling to Bumrah and the middle order fell despite getting some starts.

New Zealand was 177/8 before Kyle Jamieson showed his batting acumen once more, making 49 runs and with Neil Wagner, who made 21, added 51 runs for the 9^th wicket. India was desperately looking for a wicket and it came to Jadeja to give them the breakthrough; though not with his bowling this time.

Ravindra Jadeja takes a blinder to remove Neil Wagner

Mohammad Shami bowled a bouncer to Wagner, who hooked it towards fine-leg, where Jadeja made a leap of faith and put his hand in the air, to complete possibly one of the greatest outfields catches of all time. The Indian fielders converged on the Saurashtra all-rounder in elation and New Zealand soon folded for 235 runs, giving India a lead of 7 runs.

Talking about the catch, Jadeja was quoted as saying during the innings break– “I was expecting him (Wagner) to score towards deep square leg. But I didn’t expect the ball to come at that pace. It came so quickly with the wind and I just stuck my hand out. I didn’t even realize when I took the catch. We bowled well as a unit. We will look to bat well and bowl them out again.”

Unfortunately, Virat Kohli and his men didn’t quite take advantage of being ahead by runs in the second innings. Trent Boult picked 3/12 as India found themselves reeling at 90/6 by the stumps on day two. Pujara made 24, while Shaw and Kohli made 14 runs each. Indian team leads by 97 runs with four wickets in hand.

Here is the video of the catch:

What a catch!!! 🤯🤯🤯@imjadeja with a screamer. #NZvsIND pic.twitter.com/ywB671cEwK

— David Moore (@morteinmooie) March 1, 2020