Picture Credit: IPL
The Indian Premier League keeps on witnessing one moment of excellence followed by the other. A superb fielding effort was on display during Punjab Kings' match against Lucknow Super Giants when Jonny Bairstow produced a direct hit on the bounce from the deep square leg boundary to catch Deepak Hooda, returning for the second run short of his crease at the non-striker's end.
The incident, which happened in the 3rd ball of the 14th over, saw Hooda take his own sweet time to turn and come back for the second, which made it look like a lazy effort from the batter. Perhaps he did not expect the Englishman to reach the ball so quickly and hit the bull's eye on the throw.
The ball was pulled to the on-side by batter Krunal Pandya.
Here is the piece of brilliance from Bairstow:
The complexion of the Lucknow innings changed completely after the wickets of Hooda and Quinton de Kock. While the two added 85 runs for the second wicket and it looked like the KL Rahul- led team were well on their way to a strong total, they eventually ended up scoring 153/8. Lucknow had gone with a batter short for this match, bringing in Avesh Khan in place of Manish Pandey- a decision that may come back to haunt the new entrants in the IPL.