India won their first Test on Australian soil in a decade Monday, bowling out the home side in a nail-biting finale to clinch the opening match and raise hopes of their first ever series victory Down Under.
Australia, attempting what would have been a record chase at the ground, gallantly battled to 291 before Josh Hazlewood became the last man to fall to Ravichandran Ashwin. Hazlewood’s mistimed drive was snapped up by KL Rahul at second slip, giving India the win.
However, there was some controversy over the catch after the match was over. Replays showed that Rahul took the catch quite close to the ground and some people on social media questioned whether it was a clean one.
Former Australia cricketer Dean Jones was reportedly one of the people who questioned the catch, saying on Twitter that it “did raise an eyebrow”. However, Jones later deleted his tweet, saying that after watching more replays, he thought the catch was clean.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting also weighed in on the matter during his post-match analysis for Australia’s Channel 7, saying it was tough to get a good view of the catch.
“It was a little bit hard to tell from the initial angles,” he was quoted as saying by news.com.au. “We saw most of the angles from behind. It carries well and truly, easily enough and if anything it looks like it dips down into the ground.
“It looks like a clean catch to me and guess what, it’s too late now anyway. The game’s over,” he added.
Some others were, however, not convinced:
The victory was a huge breakthrough for captain Virat Kohli’s men, who went 1-0 up with three Tests to go after becoming the first Indian team to win the opening match of a Test series in Australia.
With inputs from AFP
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