Fielding is an art. Not many can master it. Many batters failed it. Many bowlers lost opportunities because of it. At the end of the day, you just cannot ignore it, after all, they win you matches.
Pooran’s keeping skills come in handy everything he takes the field without the gloves too. You can place him anywhere, he saves you runs and makes it look like it never happened. He does paint the art with such elegance.
In this T20 world, even a score like 200+ is not safe. The bowlers are under constant trouble and on a surface like this, spinners are finding it difficult.
It was Samson, who literally rattled CSK the other night at the crease. Murugan Ashwin tries hard but bowls a short one. It was an invitation. A touch and go sort of delivery. He had the field for it, and it was up to Samson to make a mistake here.
Samson was standing at the middle stump line, tapping his bat in the line parallel to 3rd and 4th stumps. He accepts Ashwin’s invitation and goes over. He skies it. It would have gone a lot inside of the other side of the boundary. It should have been a six and it almost landed like one. Enter Pooran.
He runs, sees the ball, launches himself. Airbourne. Totally parallel to the ground like a superman. He was flying. Maybe, he was posing to the nearby photographers. Of course, this is a social media world. Who doesn’t love such pictures?
Coming back to the game, he covered the distance and got the ball. He had it. For a second. He dismissed Samson for a second. The battle won. Unfortunately, he is a human and he cannot escape gravity. He falls. Falls down in such a way that he doesn’t get hurt. Landing on his face is the worst thing that can happen to him. Of course, he is better than that.
The time stops. The time stops for him. Maybe, the time loved the effort too. He realizes that he is literally having a freefall. He knew he lost it. He lost the battle. He is so into the game that he remembered about the runs, the important runs while his tiny journey of freefall.
He throws the ball back in a whisker. He neither was seeing the ball nor Maxwell. He had no idea where it went but of course, there was this tiny hope. Hope that somebody would come. Maxwell did. He was astonished. Of course, he should have been terrified watching a superman in action. Samson had no idea. Ashwin was clapping for the effort.
Nobody knew what happened. Nobody can explain something like this. Do you call it a marvel? Do you call him an alien? What really was that?
Well, a few things are just beyond words. Pooran’s effort was one of them today.
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