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Sport

02nd Feb 2019

Watch Jason Roy pull off outrageous athletic catch in T20 match

England white ball batsman Jason Roy is known for smashing sixes, but last night he pulled off the most spectacular catch in the Bangladesh Premier League

Reuben Pinder

This almost defies physics

T20 cricket is not for everyone. Cricketing purists will prefer the nuanced tactics of Test matches, which you don’t get in white ball matches, in which most team’s strategy is basically: score as many sixes as possible.

Still, this simplicity means that spectators can often see 400-odd runs scored in three and a half hours. You can’t deny that it’s entertaining.

One of the consequences of batsmen constantly trying to hit sixes is that we also see more spectacular catches at the boundary. Joffra Archer was the breakthrough act at last year’s Big Bash, demonstrating the huge important of fielders in the T20 game.

And last night, England white ball batsman Jason Roy reminded us of the importance of boundary fielders, as he pulled off a stunning – almost physics defying – catch in the Bangladesh Premier League.

As the commentator says: what a catch. What a catch. What a catch.

Roy’s celebration, static, grinning, perfectly sums up everyone else’s reaction to the wicket. How did he do that? How? Why would you even attempt to stop that from going for six? Watch it again.

The bowler will be very thankful to Roy for bailing him out, after a shocking ball that pitched at the perfect height for the batsman to absolutely leather it. And leather it he did. Unfortunately for him, Roy was in God mode.