Hardik Pandya takes a mind-boggling catch to get rid of Martin Guptill
He had to reach out and stretched full length with a dive to get his hand on the ball.
Can you keep a cricketer like Hardik Pandya out of action? Irrespective of the trade, he has an impact to make when on the field. The Indian team walked on the field with 202 runs behind their back. But on a good batting surface, they had to bowl and field well to win this one. India started with Ashish Nehra and Yuzvendra Chahal at the other end. Martin Guptill trying to take on the spinner early hit one down the ground and Pandya put up an unbelievable effort to grab it.
It was a length ball on the middle stump line from the leggie, Guptill who is a magnificent white ball batter made room to open his arms and clobbered it down the ground. It looked good to travel the distance at least for a boundary. But then there was Kung fu Pandya. He sprint towards the ball, watched it closely and then timed his dive to dead perfection.
He still had to reach out and stretched full length to get his hand on the ball. Once it was in his grips, there was no chance of an escape and he hit the ground only to get up in a swift motion. Hardik still hadn’t recovered from the blow and lost balance but he didn’t let the ball move an inch in his palm. Not just his team-mates but the capacity crowd present at the Feroz Shah Kotla and those watching on the television couldn’t believe what they’d just witnessed.
There was a huge roar and Pandya acknowledged it with a return applause and a dab.
Watch the catch here:
WHAT. AYE. CATCH. Hardik Pandya turns Hardik Rhodes. Absolutely Sensational! #IndvsNZ pic.twitter.com/sZy1xYIZOg
— Srini Mama ? (@SriniMama16) November 1, 2017
Earlier in the night, he was promoted to No.3 ahead of skipper Virat Kohli after the Indian openers got them off to a stupendous start. But he couldn’t last beyond the first ball and was dismissed by the leg-spinner Ish Sodhi who managed to extract turn and bounce from the surface.
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