Duleep Trophy: Nitish Reddy takes a blinder, but then drops a sitter

In the space of eight overs in the final innings of the India A-India B Duleep Trophy 2024 encounter at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on September 8 (Sunday), Nitish Reddy took a blinder at second slip to dismiss Mayank Agarwal but then gave a reprieve to Shubman Gill by dropping a sitter at the same position.

After India B set a target of 275, Yash Dayal gave his team an early breakthrough, but it was all because of Reddy’s one-handed stunner. On the second delivery of the second over, Agarwal was undone by a delivery going away. The right-hander got a thick edge and the ball flew to the right of Reddy at second slip. 

Reddy went for a full-stretched dive and took the catch. However, when his elbow hit the ground, the ball popped out of his hand for a moment but Reddy used his left arm and chest to complete the catch. The on-field umpires asked the third umpire for help, who was convinced it was out after watching just one replay.

Reddy had taken one more low catch in the first innings when he had to dive to his left to take the catch of Shivam Dube off Mukesh Kumar’s bowling. Just when it looked like Reddy was having a good game on the field, the young all-rounder dropped a sitter to give Gill a reprieve.

The drop happened in the ninth over of the final innings when Navdeep Saini, who had dismissed Gill in the first innings as well, induced an outside edge. The ball went straight into the hands of Reddy at second slip, but the 21-year-old ended up making a mess of it. 

However, that drop didn’t cost India B too many runs as Gill, in the 13th over, went chasing at a wide delivery from Saini and edged it to Rishabh Pant who made no mistake behind the stumps. Gill got out after scoring 21 off 35 deliveries.

Talking about Reddy, who is making a comeback from a groin injury, didn’t have a great game with the bat. He was knocked over for a golden duck by Akash Deep in the first innings and then edged one to the wicketkeeper after scoring 19 in the second innings. 

(Image credit - PTI)

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