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There is so much action in an Indian Premier League match. While fans look forward to seeing a quality contest between bat and ball, the advent of limited-overs cricket has taken fielding standards to a whole new level. Each run counts and hence the fielders are willing to dive around to save that extra one run or take a nearly impossible catch.
Another such jaw-dropping effort was at dispaly during the ongoing Punjab Kings vs SunRisers Hyderabad encounter at the Sharjah Cricket Ground. While Punjab Kings never really got any momentum in their innings, during the end overs they were trying to up the ante and accumulate as many runs as possible. However, against a committed SunRisers fielding unit, nothing came easy except a rare David Warner drop.
While first Sandeep Sharma took a superb return catch to dismiss Nicholas Pooran who had just made his intentions clear by smashing a huge six, later substitute fielder J Suchith took an amazing catch that is sure to be among one of the best catches of the season so far.
On the fourth ball of the 16th over being bowled by Jason Holder, Punjab batter Deepak Hooda, while trying to pounce on a fullish delivery outside off wanted to loft it over cover for a boundary. However, he failed to clear the field as in between came a flying Suchith. The fielder leaped to his left to hold on to the catch. What was more impressive was the fact that while grabbing the catch no part of his body was touching the ground and he had timed his jump to perfection.
The catch was even hailed by commentators on live broadcast.
Check out the catch here:
Punjab eventually managed to post 125/7 in their 20 overs. Aiden Markram ended up top-scoring for them with his 32-ball 27. For Hyderabad, Jason Holder was the pick of the bowlers as he scalped 3 wickets and conceded only 19 runs. Rashid Khan, Abdul Samad, Sandeep Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the other wicket-takers for the Orange Army. Irrespective of the result of the ongoing fixture, Hyderabad are set to remain at the bottom of the table but a win for them would hurt Punjab's chances of playoff qualification.