IND vs SA | Twitter reacts as retirement-bound de Kock prepares for 'career switch' with true Olympian grab

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk,SportsCafe Editor

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Players are not particularly at their agile best when standing at the brink of retirement but Quinton de Kock has always been one to defy conventions in search for the exceptional. Set to hang his boots soon, the keeper leaped to cinematic perfection on Sunday to pull off a catch for the ages.

Buoyed by a Rohit Sharma blitz to start the innings, India steadily built around a Shreyas Iyer half-century and a Virat Kohli ton to set a formidable target of 327 on a spin-friendly surface at Eden Gardens. However, things could have been much worse for the visitors had they not strangled the scoring rate with quick wickets in the death overs, a large chunk of credit for which belongs to Quinton de Kock for spelling the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav's doom.

The batter had raced to 22 off just 13 deliveries when Tabraiz Shamsi trundled in for the last ball of the 46th over after having been hit for a boundary on the previous ball. SKY premeditated a reverse sweep and shaped up for the shot well but the ball gripped a tad more than expected meaning the veteran went through the shot before the ball even arrived. Consequently, it hit him square on the glove and popped up, seemingly hanging in the air for an eternity. Quinton took a moment to reorient himself as he exasperatedly tried to figure out where the Kookaburra had gone and by the time he did so, it seemed to be too late. 

However, much to the crowd's disbelief, de Kock took a couple of quick steps to his left before throwing himself forward, perfectly imitating a swimmer's dive. At full stretch, the glovesman managed to pluck the white rock right before it hit the deck, producing a moment that would undoubtedly go down in World Cup folklore and sending Twitterati into a frenzy

Brilliant catch

What a catch

22 runs in 14 balls

Not a bird or plane

Very good cameo

Imapactful

Brilliant knock

Back to back

Departs

Surya out!

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