In the history of the T20 Cricket World Cup, it will rank as the best catch ever. It was taken in the initial T20 World Cup when a young Indian team won the tournament.
Dinesh Karthik has been India’s forever available man whenever India needed someone to cover for MS Dhoni. The man, who played the role of the second keeper in the Indian team for 15 years, however, registered his best catch in the absence of gloves.
Back in 2007, the Indian team was going through a difficult time. MS Dhoni was decided by the selectors for the position of captain, and they gave him the reign of an almost untested young side.
Having qualified for the Super 8s after a victory against arch-rivals Pakistan, India was now looking for a spot in the semi-finals. However, an upsetting performance in their first match left them pursuing two wins in their next two matches.
The first of them was against the energetic South Africans. India batted first and posted 153-5 thanks to Rohit Sharma’s 50 of 40 balls. A good score, but not a disconcerting one for a South African line-up that had started the tournament by scoring over 200 runs against West Indies.
The best catch ever in T20 Cricket World Cup
South Africa started steadily but started losing the plot in the second over of their innings itself. RP Singh had cleaned up both the openers in his very first over. Singh took the wicket of Herschelle Gibbs by trapping him LBW. Graeme Smith’s dismissal was as much Karthik’s wicket as it was of RP Singh.
An outswinger was bowled to the South African captain by the left-arm pacer. Smith pushed at the ball only to edge it to the slip cordon. Karthik then jumped to his left and caught the ball mid-air to send the southpaw back to the pavilion.
South Africa never really overcame from that dismissal and played their entire 20 overs to register only 116-9. India won that match by 37 runs and carried the force to go on and win the tournament by beating Pakistan in the finals.
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