In the second Sri Lanka-New Zealand Test in Galle, Black Caps wicketkeeper Tom Blundell adopted a strange wicketkeeping position to the bowling of spinner Ajaz Patel.
On day one of the second Test, Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and elected to bat first on a dry surface. The hosts were rocked early as opener Pathum Nissanka was dismissed in the first over by Tim Southee.
But thereafter, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal set about resurrecting the innings following a short spell of rain. The pair put on 122 for the second wicket, and were separated only after a mix-up resulted in Karunaratne's run out.
Read more: Why Sri Lanka dropped Ramesh Mendis for debutant Nishan Peiris, despite Galle wicket glut
Angelo Mathews joined Chandimal in the middle, and run-scoring remained relatively easy through the afternoon session as the latter reached his century shortly before tea. The visitors were starting to run out of ideas to keep the runs down, with wicket-taking looking unlikely as well.
NZ keeper stands outside leg stump in strange move
In the 59th over of the innings, with left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel bowling, New Zealand wicketkeeper Tom Blundell caught the eye when he changed his position behind the stumps. Instead of standing just outside the line of the right-hander's off stump, Blundell moved towards the leg side, almost peering out from behind the batter's legs.
Ajaz had been bowling a straight line, aiming at the right-hander's pads from over the wicket. This was partly in an attempt to pitch the ball in the footmarks created by the pace bowlers at that end, but also doubled up as a restrictive tactic.
Also read: Ten Sri Lanka spinners plucked from obscurity for the big stage
By pitching the ball outside leg stump, Ajaz was not running the risk of the ball being called a wide in this format of the game, and with a fielder at forward short leg and others in single-saving positions on the leg side, run-scoring was also made difficult.
Commentators on the television broadcast noted that the umpire had a few words with Ajaz during the over, venturing the explanation that the bowler may have been pulled up for bowling a negative line, generally seen as an unsporting tactic.
Off the fifth delivery of the over, the umpire penalised Ajaz by calling a delivery outside leg stump a wide.
Image credit: FanCode
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
