Jonty Rhodes calls Yuvraj Singh his 'chota bhai'

Some South Africans, say for example AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, are known for their batting. Some like Allan Donald and Dale Steyn are known for their bowling while someone like Jacques Kallis is known for his all-round ability. The South African we are talking about here, is known for his excellence in the domain which was the third dimension which forever belongs to him. Yes, none other than the king of fielding Jonty Rhodes.

Rhodes, who turned 48 on Thursday (July 27), is known for his acrobatics in the field. He came to limelight with the famous Inzamam-ul-Haq run-out incident in the World Cup 1992. If the ball went his direction, no batsman dared to take a quick single. But Jonty had to taste his own medicine in the semi-final of ICC Champions Trophy 2002.

Deja vu

Team India was facing the Proteas in the 1st semi-final of Champions Trophy ’02. The Men in Blue scored a formidable total of 261 runs. With around 70 runs required from the 12 overs with 9 wickets in hand, the green shirts were cruising towards a comfortable victory. But the wheels of fortune turned in India’s favour as Yuvraj Singh a youngster then took a Jonty Rhodesesque catch to dismiss the great man.

Jonty opted for a fancy reverse sweep off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh and ended up losing his wicket. But full credits to Yuvraj for taking a very difficult catch diving to his weaker, right side. The colour of the match changed from there on as the remaining batters – Boucher, Klusener and Dippenaar never managed to get hold of the game.

On his birthday, Yuvraj wished the flying Protean from Natal with a tweet that read “Happy birthday Jonty singh @JontyRhodes8 the flying machine I grew up watching and was a honour to take his catch in similar fashion 2002 ct”.

Jonty “Singh” replied Yuvi in Indian style by tweeting “Thank u chhoTaa bhaaii, it was indeed a fine catch @YUVSTRONG12”. In case you don’t know, “chhoTaa bhaaii” means little brother.

Watch Yuvraj Singh’s stunning catch here