One of the talking points of day two of the second Test between India and South Africa has been the wicket of Rassie van der Dussen. The South African right-hander inside-edged a delivery of Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant looked very confident of taking the ball in front of him. The batter walked straightaway while the umpire was also convinced of the catch as well.
It was the stroke of lunch and the replays of the wicket showed the delivery bouncing slightly in front of the wicketkeeper. However, there was no conclusive evidence of the ball bouncing in front as the two-dimensional images tend to create different impression. Pant did seem very confident of the catch while the umpires offered KL Rahul the chance to call back the batter.
The Indian skipper wasn’t much interested and Shaun Pollock and Dinesh Karthik had their views cut out on the catch in a Cricbuzz conversation.
Shaun Pollock felt sad for the wicketkeepers as they do not have the best of views while taking catches forward and saw the funny side of it. He noted about the bulkiness of the gloves played an important role in the confusion for the wicket keepers. It is not often that the batters tend to walk away in a catch that had doubts, but van der Dussen was quick to move back into the pavilion which wasn't ideal as well.
“There was one where Rassie van der Dussen reviewed and it seemed to bounce short. There was another catch which was quite contentious and there was a bit of discussion in the lunch break, South African camp went to ask if it had carried. It is funny enough that for wicketkeepers in particular with the gloves they've got and often for fielders, when you take the ball coming forward, you think you'd be able to see it and whether it has or hasn't carried but it's not that easy, is it? The odd times where even as a wicketkeeper, with the bulkiness of the gloves, you're sure whether it has carried or not,” Pollock stated in the conversation
Dinesh Karthik, himself being a wicketkeeper was quick to agree on Pollock’s point and mentioned about the leather having an impact as well.
“Absolutely. The way you do, the way you get the head away, it's hard to see the ball and because you have the glove which obviously has a lot of leather that protects you from the hits, what it does is that the impact on the ground is not seen,” Karthik replied to Pollock’s statement.