Twitter reacts to Moises Henriques tricking wicket-keeper into dropping catch by ‘unintentionally’ throwing his bat

Much was expected from the first-ever IPL game at the world’s largest stadium, but the first 10 overs turned out to be an absolute snoozefest. On a sluggish wicket that had no pace, bounce or turn, Punjab crawled their way to 56/3 and the game, up until this point, somehow outdid Chepauk in terms of how dull it was. But out of nowhere, the 12th overproduced two moments that put a smile on the viewer’s face.

First, on the 2nd ball of the over, Rahul Tripathi pulled off a forward roll at a deep mid-wicket in the process of completing a catch. But when you thought Tripathi’s actions were ridiculous, Moises Henriques, two balls later, unintentionally did something that turned out to be a cricketing first.

As Sunil Narine delivered one of his mystery balls marginally outside off stump, Henriques went for a wild, extravagant drive and ended up inside-edging the ball. Usually, the next action is the wicket-keeper gobbling up the ball, but here’s where things took a wild turn. So full-blooded was Henriques’ swing that the bat slipped out of his hand and flew towards square leg. We’ve, of course, in the past, seen instances like this, but why this one became unique was that it ended up completely putting the wicket-keeper off. Distracted by the flying bat, Dinesh Karthik, behind the stumps, ended up spilling the catch, giving the Australian life.

The New South Welshman didn’t make use of the reprieve, falling just two balls later, but he produced a light-hearted moment to savor.

What a ball!

LOL!!

HAHA!!

sure!

OH, NO!!

ROFL!