Feature

Jadeja flexes his muscles

Plays of the Day from the second ODI between Zimbabwe and India, in Harare

Virat Kohli was not happy when given out to a low catch  AFP

The no-ball
Zimbabwe's seamers had every chance of troubling India's batsmen in helpful conditions in the morning, but Kyle Jarvis strained a little too hard to force a breakthrough at times. In his third over, he had Shikhar Dhawan caught behind but replays immediately showed that he'd overstepped and Dhawan was told to stick around. A clearly rattled Jarvis no-balled once again on the Free Hit delivery, and before the over was up had leaked a whopping 15 runs.

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The strop
The decision that ended Virat Kohli's innings is bound to be a controversial one. Kohli mistimed a push into the leg side off Jarvis, the ball popping in the air towards Malcolm Waller at mid-on. Waller claimed the catch, but Kohli wasn't going anywhere and Umpire Oxenford asked for a television replay. From the front-on replay, there seemed to be some doubt as to whether the catch was taken - though that they may have been the effect of foreshortening. From the rear angle, it looked clean and so Oxenford sent Kohli on his way, but the Indian captain was far from happy.

The drop
Dhawan's charmed life continued as, in the ninth over, he leaned into a checked drive only to edge the ball straight through to Brendan Taylor at stomach height. Taylor, whose fingers were pointing up rather than down, closed his gloves too early and spilled the regulation chance.

The drop, Mk II
Next it was Brian Vitori's turn to spill a chance, although to be fair it was a very tough one. Ambati Rayudu, whose labouring innings was in contrast to his debut effort, attempted to break the shackles with a drive down the ground but spooned the shot towards the bowler. The ball was hit quite hard, but Vitori got his right hand to it. He couldn't hold on, and required some attention from the physio for the stinging blow.

The drop, Mk III
Yes, another one, and this time it really took the wind out of Zimbabwe's sails. Dhawan, on 70 at the time, heaved a slog sweep out towards Malcolm Waller at deep midwicket. The ball flew flat and hard, but Waller was in a good position to hold on to it. Instead, he misjudged the take and the ball burst through his hands and the result was four runs. Dhawan went on to add 46 more before he was eventually dismissed. Fortunately for Zimbabwe, he was bowled so no fielder was needed.

The bicep
Ravindra Jadeja's arm isn't just golden, it's also armed with a howitzer-like throw. At the start of Zimbabwe's chase, Sikandar Raza chopped a length delivery from Mohammad Shami to backward point, calling Vusi Sibanda through for a quick single even as Sir Jadeja swooped, shied and shattered the stumps. Sibanda was safely in, but such was the power of the throw that one of the stumps was cracked through and had to be replaced. A smiling Jadeja flexed and cupped his bicep as the umpires called for a replacement stump, much to the amusement of his team-mates.

The double dismissal
The reverse sweep is a shot that Sean Williams plays all the time to the spinners, and usually to good effect. Today he attempted the stroke against Jadeja, early in his innings, but the ball slipped past his bat to strike his pad in front of middle. As the appeal went up, Williams wandered out of his crease looking for a cheeky single, but an alert slip fielder chased the ball down and pinged the stumps with the batsman stranded mid-pitch as Umpire Oxenford's finger went up. Either dismissal would have been legitimate, but the scorecard will show that Williams was trapped lbw.

Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town