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How many times have you seen a fielder celebrate a six that went over his head? Take your time, hit the keyboard, search YouTube. While you’re doing all this, also try to find a case where the ball boy redeemed himself during the same innings after a catch. Now, what if we say that the two questions are related? Wait, let’s make it more awesome. The questions have the same answer. Perplexed? Don’t be. We’ve got you covered.
Your search will end with the Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi Pakistan Super League (PSL) match in Rawalpindi. The fielder in question here is New Zealand’s Colin Munro. With his Islamabad United team in the lead, Munro decided to share a happy moment with a ball boy.
On the last ball of the seventh over, Islamabad pacer Faheem Ashraf tried to limit Zalmi’s Amer Jamal. But the right-hander was up to the task. He cut the rising delivery from his hips and the ball sailed just over Munro, standing on his fine leg. The ball placed in that area, he ran to catch it but was unable to retain it. Munro was kind enough to give the boy a hug and some comfort.
Nobody imagined that the ball boy would redeem himself with Munro as company again. He happened on the penultimate ball of the 19th over. Left-arm pacer Rumman Raez bowled a slower one around leg stump and Arif Yaqoob gave it an almighty turn. He made a good connection. Enough to overcome the fine leg limit. This time, the same boy, who had dropped the catch, split forward to take advantage of a much more difficult opportunity.
It was Munro again in that region. The left-handed batsman was delighted, not because the ball went for six but because of the boy who had redeemed himself with a wonderful catch. He was celebrating with the ball boy, high-fiving him and hugging him.
Colin Munro high fives and hugs ball boy who redeemed himself after dropping catch
Aamer Jamal’s quick-fire half-century was not enough to make up for early mistakes as Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 29 runs. Islamabad scored 196-4 thanks mainly to captain Shadab Khan’s 80 off 51 balls.
Brothers Naseem Shah, 1-26, and Hunain Shah, 2-25, then sliced through Peshawar’s top order in the powerplay and reduced it to 18-5.
Jamal sparked the comeback by smashing 87 off 49 balls to take them to 152-6 in the 18th over when he was cleanly bowled by leg-spinner Shadab, who finished with 3-41.
Islamabad moved to third place in the six-team table, ahead of Peshawar in net run rate.
Peshawar’s chase ran into trouble early on when captain Babar Azam ran out off the first ball he faced. Babar could not beat Alex Hales’ direct shot to the non-striker’s side.
Saim Ayub was caught at the slips in an eventful first over and it became 3-3 when Imad Wasim took a strong and well-judged two-handed catch at short fine leg to dismiss Mohammad Haris. Hunain’s double-wicket maiden extended Peshawar’s collapse.
Jamal hit back in the middle overs, sharing a 107-run stand with Paul Walter, who contributed 33. Jamal smashed six sixes and eight fours before misplaying Shadab’s googly in the same over and hitting a 102-metre six.
Earlier, after being put into bat in cold weather, Hales’ middle stump was knocked down by Ayub’s first delivery, a carrom ball. But Shadab shared two valuable half-century stands with Salman Ali Agha (37) and Jordan Cox (26). Azam Khan’s unbeaten 29 off 14 provided a late bloom.