'It was Mitch’s catch and Carey just...': Hazlewood opens up on Marsh dropping Kohli in big World Cup clash

India seemed to be in for a shocker in their opening World Cup match against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium when they lost three wickets for just two runs within the first two overs. They were chasing a target of 200 with the hosts' spinners reigning supreme and not letting the Australia batters off the hook. However, Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer all falling for ducks led to Australia roaring back into the game quite early in the chase.

It would've got even worse for India when Virat Kohli skied an attempted pull shot. However, much to the relief to the team and to a large majority of those present in the stands at Chepauk, Mitchell Marsh dropped it quite spectacularly. Kohli had scored just 12 runs in 26 balls at the time. He went on to compile 85 in 116 as part of a masterful 165-run partnership with KL Rahul which pretty much ended any chance Australia may have seen in that early period of the Indian chase.

The drop had happened off the bowling of fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who went on to dismiss Kohli later in the innings. Hazlewood however things that the incident was not a pivotal moment in the match. “No, I don’t think so (it played a role), it was quite early obviously when that catch was dropped,” Hazlewood said in the post-match press conference.

Two players going for one catch

Kohli seemed to be surprised by the short ball from Hazlewood and got a top edge on his pull shot. Marsh and wicketkeeper Alex Carey came running in from opposite directions towards the point where the ball would have landed. Carey seemed to pull away in the last moment but Marsh seemed confused by that. He came sliding accross but his hands were woefully out of position, to the point that the ball went straight through between them.

“I didn’t think Carey could get there. I think it was Mitch’s catch and probably just Carey got quite close in the end so it might have just put Mitch off," said Hazlewood. “Yeah, he dropped a catch, it’s one of those things that happens and everyone’s training hard and working hard off the field to hang on to them. So, yeah, we’ll continue on.”