Dubai [UAE], September 25 (ANI): India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy didn’t offer any excuse while reflecting on the number of dropped opportunities, but subtly indicated that the Dubai International Stadium’s lights act as a “disturbance”, making it hard to identify the ball.
In the last two Super Fours fixtures, Indian fielders have been exposed to the harsh reality of taking catches under the light in Dubai. During the six-wicket triumph over Pakistan, four dropped catches and a couple of errors in the field summed up India’s bizarre effort in the field.
The pattern continued on Wednesday, with Saif Hassan, Bangladesh’s lone crusader, being handed four unprecedented lifelines. Indian fielders dropped him on scores of 40, 65, 66 and 67. On the fifth instance, Axar Patel didn’t overcalculate and punched Saif’s return ticket on 69(51) off Jasprit Bumrah in the 19th over.
In the ongoing tournament, India has dropped 12 catches and boasts an efficiency rate of 67.5 per cent, the second-lowest among all participating nations. Chakravarthy emphasised the need to capitalise on the opportunities, but the stadium’s “rings of fire” certainly act as a distraction.
“You can’t give excuses at this level. As a team, we have to definitely start catching those because we will be qualifying for the finals. We should be taking these catches, but definitely, if you ask me about rings of fire, it comes in the eye, something. It is a little bit of disturbance,” Chakravarthy told reporters in the post-match press conference after India’s 41-run victory.
After India’s second victory over Pakistan in the tournament, India captain Suryakumar Yadav reflected on the fielding woes and jokingly said, “The fielding coach T Dilip has emailed the boys with butter on their fingers to appear before him.”
Chakravarthy said T Dilip didn’t critique much about their last outing, but this time he would certainly have a word or two to say and said, “It is a mission to the World Cup. We have to pick up our fielding, and definitely, the fielding coach has a lot to say. Last match, he didn’t say much, but this match, I think he will have a lot to say.”
The 34-year-old returned with figures of 2/29 in his four-over spell during India’s defence of a 169-run target. Despite the fielding woes, India’s spirited bowling display bamboozled Bangladesh and forced them to be bundled out for a mere 127. (ANI)
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