In a rare occurrence, the South African team received five penalty runs as Cheteshwar Pujara dropped a catch of Temba Bavuma on Day 2 of the third Test in Cape Town. As Pujara dropped the catch, the ball rolled down towards Risahbh Pan’s helmet sitting on the ground. In the 50th over of the innings bowled by Shardul Thakur, Bavuma slashed at the ball which flew towards Pujara, who on Day 1 had taken a sharp catch to dismiss South Africa captain Dean Elgar, at first slip.
Chetshwar Pujara might’ve been blind-sided by a diving Rishabh Pant in front of him, got down in time but couldn’t latch on to the ball. Thakur was consistently forcing the batters to go for the drive and misses and some close LBW shouts, was forced to say ‘arre yaar’ (Oh man) in anger as India came close to breaking the promising partnership between Bavuma and Keegan Petersen.
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Wile commentating on the incident, Mark Nicholas said, “Gosh, insult followed by injury. Difficult catch to your left side at first slip. Very difficult on the inside of the keeper. And it flew, it flew low from an under edge.” As replays showed, it was actually the outside edge the ball took off the bat. Nicholas’ commentary partner and former South Africa skipper, Shaun Pollock explained what made the catch more difficult than it actually was.
Here is the video of the incident:
Easy or tough? pic.twitter.com/n4c6fPXUpr
— Benaam Baadshah (@BenaamBaadshah4) January 12, 2022
Shaun Pollock explained, “It was the outer edge and that’s why it flows, and then you also have the keeper going across and throwing his right arm out. It always goes to hand, but it’s a lot going on. It’s a bit of a surprise too. He got two hands to it, probably reckons he could have taken that one. That is a tough chance, Pujara.”
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The drop catch did not hurt India much though as Temba Bavuma eventually fell after a couple of overs later to Mohammed Shami, caught by Kohli at second slip. This was after India had a fine start to the second session with Umesh Yadav dismissing Rassie van der Dussen out caught behind to pick up his second wicket. Van der Dussen tried to bludgeon the ball through covers but the ball took the edge and landed straight into the hands of Kohli.
