VIDEO | Ollie Pope takes stunning reflex catch at forward short leg to leave Joseph in disbelief

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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In his thus-far young career, Ollie Pope has already started to build quite the name for himself as a gun forward short-leg fielder and in the morning of Day 4, the youngster further enhanced his reputation. Pope took a stunning reflex catch off Dom Bess to leave Alzarri Joseph in utter disbelief.

English youngster Ollie Pope might just be nine Tests old, but in his young career, the 22-year-old has already batted at three different positions and has also kept wickets. But if there’s one thing that’s becoming evident with every Test he plays, it’s that he is a world-class forward short-leg fielder. It was only a few months ago that the youngster stunned Rassie van der Dussen with a stunning catch at FSL and, more notably, he’d also, on debut, taken the catch of Indian skipper Virat Kohli, fielding at the same position. And on the morning of Day 4 at Old Trafford, Pope’s brilliance once again helped England create inroads in their opposition. 

Having gone 10 overs without taking a single wicket, failing to even dismiss the nightwatchman Alzarri Joseph, pressure and frustration were mounting on England, who turned to off-spinner Dom Bess for the first time in the day in Windies’ 25th over. And it didn’t take long for Bess to make an impact as on just his second delivery of the day, the youngster induced sharp turn that hurried Joseph and prompted the batsman to nudge the ball towards the on-side, without being in control.  

But it was what followed next that left the batsman in disbelief. The turn and bounce generated by Bess meant that the ball hit Joseph high on his bat and while the nightwatchman thought he’d safely negated the tricky delivery, Ollie Pope at forward short-leg had other ideas. As the ball, coming off Joseph’s bat, hung in the air for under a second, Pope remarkably plucked it out of thin air with his right hand to send the batsman packing. 

Such was the ridiculous reflex Pope displayed that Joseph, who was batting 32 and had shown great skill and patience up until then, was left in disbelief as he took an eternity to eventually walk off the field. Well, at this rate Pope is on his way to becoming the God of FSL fielders.  

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