Is that a plane, is that a bird? No, it’s Hardik Pandya! That was the feeling when Pandya took the catch of Martin Guptill. The catch was taken on the third ball of the second over. Yuzvendra Chahal opened the bowling alongside Ashish Nehra. Chahal bowled the ball slower through the air and just short of the good length. Guptill went for the shot anyway seeing the fielding restrictions. All the opener could do was hit it in the air as the ball hung up in the sky. Pandya came running from the long on position, as he saw the ball dip he made a dive. The all-rounder caught hold of the ball while diving in the air.
Pandya fell on the ground trying to stand up right after taking the catch but did not drop the ball. The players started running towards Pandya as they knew the importance of Goptill’s wicket in the powerplay overs. Even the 12th man KL Rahul hugged Pandya as Guptill took the long walk back to the pavilion.
Guptill got out after scoring just 4 runs from 8 balls. He could not even take a single apart from scoring a boundary in the first over off Ashish Nehra. Pandya came close to take another stunning catch in the next over off Nehra’s delivery but the ball bounced off his palms.
Here’s the video of Pandya’s catch –
— cricket (@84107010ghwj) November 1, 2017
Pandya made up for his batting by taking the spectacular catch. He was sent ahead of skipper Virat Kohli but could not make it count. It was surprising to see him get out for a duck as Ish Sodhi was bowling. Pandya is usually able to attack the spinners and hit huge sixes off them. Though he did well with the ball later on as he got the wicket of Kane Williamson off the first ball he bowled.
