There were many similarities to the dismissals of Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra, but a visible mistake from the two batsmen wasn’t one of them. It was Washington Sundar who was carrying forward his fine form from Pune across the Expressway into Mumbai’s Wankhede, sending down a pair of jaffas to castle the two top order Kiwis.
And it might be Virat Kohli’s timely advice at the start of the 16th that helped dislodge Latham who was settling in comfortably and looked dogged in defense. It’s when Kohli was seen chirping up to Sundar in the 16th over, advising him to bowl a particular spot, keeping it straight after pitching. It was a confident stride forward from Latham, but he couldn’t get behind the line of the delivery as it hurried straight and knocked his offstump.
Latham wouldn’t know what whizzed past his edge and was left looking at the track, behind and then at the bowler who got busy celebrating with his close-in cohort.
1⃣ Brings 2⃣, they say!
Washington Sundar agrees! ☺️
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— BCCI (@BCCI) November 1, 2024
The manner of dismissal was to repeat in the 20th over, when Rachin Ravindra was sent back quite similarly as Sundar once again came round the wicket, rattling New Zealand’s finely alternating and curated left-right batting order.
To his 11 wickets from Pune, Sundar had added two more at Mumbai to leave NZ on 92/3 at lunch. However, Latham must be ruing his decision to bat first on the Wankhede pitch where Ashwin was brought in in the 9th over, but it was Sundar who struck the mighty blows.
While it had been the first ball of the 16th, it was the last one of the 20th to Rachin. This one, more a good length was angled into the middle stump, inviting Rachin to come forward but his assured looking defense was broken through as once again the ball went on to clip the off stump. The commentator would immediately say, “and another one. Washington Sundar making it a habit of making it spin from the centre and hit the top of off.”
Twitterati would dub it the “Cut, Copy, Paste” pair of dismissals. Sarfaraz Khan then at short leg, was especially animated, celebrating right in Rachin’s face, as New Zealand’s two top batters were left clueless by Washington’s double charge.