[Watch] Joe Root takes a sharp diving recovery catch to dismiss Gudakesh Motie in 3rd ENG vs WI TestÂ
England player Joe Root showed some excellent presence of mind on the field to take a sharp catch on Day 1 of the third Test against the West Indies. Edgbaston Birmingham hosted the clash on Friday, July 26. The catch resulted in the dismissal of Gudakesh Motie, who scored eight runs in as many balls.
The spinner returned to the playing XI after missing out on the second Test due to illness. He replaced Kevin Sinclair in the lineup, as the fellow off-spinner sustained a broken arm after trying to fend off a searing delivery by Mark Wood.
Motie came into bat with the score reading 244-7 after 68 overs. England were on the lookout to wipe out the tail quickly, something which they failed to do in the first innings of the previous Test. After Jason Holder's dismissal off the very next over, the West Indies were into their lower order.
Motie had remained not out on both occasions in the first Test and was also the leading run scorer in the second innings. However, he couldn't repeat his heroics after he was undone by a Gus Atkinson bouncer.
He tried to fend off the delivery, but got in an awkward shape, resulting in the ball making contact with the bat's edge and looping towards the wicket-keeper. The chance, however, proved to be too steep for Jamie Smith. The gloveman could not reach the ball despite jumping full length.
Luckily for England, Root was quite sharp at first slip. He did not keep his eyes off the ball and came to Smith's rescue by diving to his right and completing the catch right behind the keeper to provide the perfect cover. Have a look at Root's brilliant piece of fielding right here:
The dismissal reduced the West Indies to 259-9 in the 71st over, leading them one step closer to being bowled out on Day 1 itself after opting to bat first.
Shamar Joseph added some valuable runs for the final wicket after Root's brilliance
Shamar Joseph came out with intent, and used the sweep to great effect to extract some valuable runs and stretch the first innings total as much as possible.
However, he fell to Shoaib Bashir via a catch from Zak Crawley. West Indies ended the innings at 282 after 75.1 overs.