WATCH: Dinesh Karthik drops sitter, redeems himself with stunner
Dinesh Karthik dives back into play to hold a great catch. (Twitter grab)

Dinesh Karthik had two moments of contrasting emotions as an outfielder during the first half of the opening T20I between India and New Zealand at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium on Wednesday.

First, Karthik dropped a straightforward catch at long-on to give Tim Seifert a life on 71. But not long after, he held a tumbling catch in the same region to get rid of Daryl Mitchell. (READ MORE: INDIA vs NEW ZEALAND, 1st T20I)

Off the last ball of the 11th over, Seifert top-edged a slog-sweep off Krunal Pandya towards wide long-on where Karthik ran, got his hands under the ball but spilled the catch as it bounced out of his hands. Seifert, on 71, ran two and was eventually out for 84 off 43 balls in the 13th over.

WATCH DINESH KARTHIK’S DROPPED CATCH

Off the final ball of the 15th over, bowled by Hardik Pandya, the debutant Mitchell slogged the ball high in the air towards long-on. Back-pedalling, Karthik jumped to catch the ball with both hands, then lost balance as he fell over the boundary. Smartly, he threw the ball back into the field of play and then dived forward to hold teh catch on the second attempt.

WATCH DINESH KARTHIK’S BOUNDARY CATCH

That made it one of the most sensational boundary catches by an Indian fielder in recent times. To hold your focus when losing balance in such quick time was a superb effort from Karthik, who is one of three wicketkeepers in India’s XI for the first T2oI along with MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant.