The final over of the T20 World Cup 2022 final between India and South Africa remains etched in the minds of cricket fans, and a significant part of that unforgettable drama is commentator Jatin Sapru’s iconic call of Suryakumar Yadav’s match-winning catch.
“Hardik bowled and I remember I was building up,” Sapru recalled in a recent interview. “There was a shot of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma… the last six balls potentially of their T20I careers. When the ball flew off the bat, the first two seconds I didn’t say anything. Because from that angle, the trajectory wasn’t picked. The ball got lost. It’s easier to pick it from the side, but not from that angle. You want to pick up the speed at which the ball is coming. So I took a couple of seconds, and with the wind that there was, I felt it was going to be a six,” Sapru said in a video shared by Star Sports, marking the one month anniversary of India’s T20 World Cup win.
And what happened then was nothing short of a miracle. Stationed at long-off, Suryakumar Yadav sprinted in, plucked the catch out of thin air, and with incredible presence of mind, threw the ball back into play as he was about to cross the boundary. Regaining control, he leapt back in and completed the catch. There were five more balls to go, but that was the match.
Breaking down the three ‘LONG-OFF’ calls, Sapru explained, “All three ‘long-offs’ had a different tone to it, which changed dramatically every mini-second as Surya poised himself. For the last 10 years, India had, time and again, been at the receiving end of it – Martin Guptill’s direct hit, Travis Head’s catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah dismissing Fakhar Zaman off a no-ball. This was India’s chance to bury all those ghosts with one catch.”
Sapru continued, “Then I got up and saw from the corner of the eye someone starting to run in a very interesting manner, so that was the first ‘long-off’. That long off was for being interested. The second ‘long-off’ was because he was coming closer. And the third ‘long-off’ was because I saw Surya take the catch. And I literally saw him for a fraction of a second before he went in front of the sightscreen. I didn’t have a vision beyond that. I had forgotten the screen. I was watching it live.”
The commentator concluded, “You can’t prepare for that moment. I don’t think I said anything extraordinary. All I said was who was interested and then Suryakumar Yadav was the guy who has pulled off a miracle. We had spent out whole lives watching Kapil Dev’s catch of Viv Richards. You just realise and then the context came to me that this has got to be the biggest catch of his career. So great view.”
Sapru’s commentary, with its raw emotion and split-second reactions, has become an integral part of the iconic moment. His ability to capture the drama and intensity of the game is a testament to his skill as a commentator.
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