Published 18:21 IST, February 28th 2021
Michael Atherton picks the 'ball' of the Ahmedabad Test match featuring R Ashwin
Michael Atherton analysed the 'Ball of the Game' bowled by R Ashwin in the second innings of the third Test match at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium
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Former English skipper Michael Atherton has said that the delivery bowled by veteran offie Ravichandran Ashwin to castle middle-order batsman Ollie Pope in the second innings of the third Test match at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad is the 'ball of the game' according to him.
What has really stood out here is that Ashwin ended up bamboozling Pope with a straight delivery.
'Ball of the game': Michael Atherton
"I thought that the wicket of Pope. The way he got Pope out in the second innings, for me that was the ball of the game. People look at that and say ‘look it’s just a straight ball. What’s the problem?’ But a couple of balls before he really spun one that virtually had gone to leg slip over Pope’s left shoulder and that was a deliberately bowled straight ball. He kind of under-cut it and it was an absolutely beautiful bit of bowling," said Michael Atherton while interacting on Sky Sports Cricket.
How R Ashwin outfoxed Ollie Pope?
This happened in the 22nd over of England's second innings. On the final delivery of that over, 'Ash' had bowled a floated delivery that pitched on the middle-stump and when Pope attempted to defend it, the ball turned and bounced away from him after pitching as it ends up uprooting his off stump.
While his spin partner Axar Patel was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the second innings after registering a hat-trick of fifers in the ongoing series as well as in his Test career, Ravi Ashwin was equally instrumental in making the ball talk as well as he finished with figures of 4/48 from his 15 overs at an economy rate of 3.20.
Ravichandran Ashwin also ended up registering 400 Test scalps in the very same innings. By the virtue of this feat, the Tamil Nadu cricketer has now joined the likes of a few of his great predecessors to become the fourth Indian bowler to register 400 scalps in the longest format of the game. Ashwin with 400 wickets in 77 matches has joined the likes of his former team-mate Harbhajan Singh (417 wickets in 103 matches), legendary all-rounder & 1983 World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev (434 wickets in 131 matches), and, spin legend Anil Kumble (619 wickets from 132 matches to reach the 400-club in Test match cricket.
While he became the fastest Indian bowler to pick up 400 wickets in red-ball cricket, he is now the second-fastest bowler in world cricket to achieve this feat. Team India's modern-day Test specialist picked up his 400th scalp in his 77th Test appearance. Meanwhile, the record is still held by Sri Lankan spin legend as well as the highest wicket-taker in Test history (800) Muttiah Muralitharan who had reached the landmark in just his 72nd Test appearance.
18:21 IST, February 28th 2021