"I Knew I Hadn't...": Suryakumar Yadav On T20 World Cup Final Catch Amid Social Media Chatter

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Suryakumar Yadav's boundary-rope catch in the T20 World Cup 2024 final was arguably the biggest turning-point.

"The catch I took, I have practised it at different grounds, depending on the wind. I was standing a bit wide yesterday because Hardik (Pandya) and Rohit (Sharma) bhai had put a field for the wide yorker, and (David) Miller had hit straight. My mind was clear that kaise bhi karke pakad he lena hai (come what may, have to catch it). Rohit bhai usually never stands at long-on but at that moment he was there. So when the ball was coming, for a second I looked at him and he looked at me. I ran and my aim was to catch the ball, had he (Rohit) been closer, I would have thrown the ball towards him. But he was nowhere close. In those 4-5 seconds, whatever happened, I can't explain. The amount of reaction I have been getting for that, people have been calling, messaging, there are more than 1,000 unread WhatsApp messages on my phone. The catch is all over social media. I'm grateful that I was there in those five seconds of play," he said.

On execution, Surya admitted that he was cautious about not touching the rope while pushing the ball back inside the ground. Upon completion, he was confident that it was a fair catch.

"When I pushed the ball and took the catch, I knew I hadn't touched the rope. The only thing I was cautious about was that when I pushed the ball back inside, my feet don't touch the rope. I knew it was a fair catch. In hindsight, anything could have happened. If the ball had gone for six, the equation would have been 5 balls, 10 runs. We might have still won, but the margin would have been closer," he asserted.