Indian fielding coach MSK Prasad have been stressing on the importance of fitness and fielding in the ‘new Indian team’, especially in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup.
New youngsters like Manish Pandey, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya, have shown their prowess on the field with some superb dives and run-outs.
Today, Pandy showed the importance of fielding & fitness in a match by pulling off a piece of brilliance against New Zealand in the first T20.
Yuzvendra Chahal was surprisingly chosen to bowl the second over of the Kiwi innings, after the Indian opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan smote the visitors’ bowling attack on their way to 202. Martin Guptill, who has been in a lean run of form, decided to go after Chahal from the second ball itself. He got a delivery right in the slot and went for a lofted straight drive, giving the ball a mighty swing, ready to challenge the two fielders in the deep.
@hardikpandya7 That's why you are Favourite.#bestcatchof2017 pic.twitter.com/y2xmoaBn8s
— Pawan sharma (@PawanPawann) November 1, 2017
The ball went straight as an arrow, and looked on its course to crash onto the sightscreen, but it got the elevation, and not the distance.
And here comes the flying man, Hardik Pandya!
He ran from long-off, keeping his eyes on the ball all the while. As the ball dipped, a few feet in front of the ropes, a galloping Pandya leapt, stretching horizontally across the carpet and took a two-handed blinder, right in front of the sightscreen. Guptill must have cursed his luck in disbelief. What made the catch special was how he adjusted to the dip in elevation and timed his jump to perfection, leaping like an acrobat to grab the ball cleanly.
However, he do dropped another catch of Munro in next over but that didn’t hurt India much as a cracking yorker from Bhubneshwar Kumar got rid of Munro.
