[Watch] Ravichandran Ashwin castles Tom Blundell as ball turns sharply off footmarks after hitting bat
New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell found himself dismissed in a most unfortunate manner as Ravichandran Ashwin castled him with the help of an inside edge and the batters' footmarks.
Blundell saw off 37 deliveries and looked good in his defense as New Zealand looked to save a draw on Day 5 of the first Test in Kanpur. He was stretching to defend a delivery from Ashwin that spun in from outside off, but the ball hit the inside of the bat and landed on the footmarks.
The ball was moving towards leg-slip after taking a deflection off Blundell's bat, but hit the footmarks and suddenly spun sharply to take the bails off.
Watch Blundell's unfortunate dismissal here:
Unlucky Dismissal for Blundell.
https://t.co/IhyMRp880u
The wicket saw New Zealand fall deeper into trouble at 138/7 in the final session of the Test in their chase of 284.
India vs New Zealand: Ravichandran Ashwin surpasses Harbhajan Singh in Test wicket-takers' list
It was Ravichandran Ashwin's second scalp of the day and third of the innings.
He had dismissed opener Will Young late on Day 4 and then got the key wicket of fellow opener Tom Latham today.
Ashwin also took three wickets in New Zealand's first innings.
With the wicket of Tom Latham, Ashwin became India's third-highest wicket-taker in Tests, going past Harbhajan Singh's tally of 417 scalps in the longest format.
Stat Alert - With 418 wickets, @ashwinravi99 becomes India's third-highest wicket-taker in Tests.
#TeamIndia https://t.co/TRvelxZ1Wk
Anil Kumble, with 619 wickets in 132 Tests, and Kapil Dev, with 434 scalps in 131 matches, are above Ashwin in the wicket charts.
Ashwin, with Blundell's wicket, moved to 419 wickets in 80 Tests.
Ravichandran Ashwin also contributed well with the bat in the match, making 38 in the first innings and 32 in the second.
His own dismissal off Kyle Jamieson in the second essay was an unfortunate one, as the ball took an edge off the bat, went on to hit his pad and then rolled onto the stumps.