'Wasn't Extraordinary': Jatin Sapru On His Iconic 'Long Off, Long Off' Commentary On SKY's WC Final Catch
Jatin Sapru Commentary on SKY's catch (X.com)
It has been over a month since India lifted their 2nd T20 World Cup title after beating South Africa in the final, but the celebrations are refusing to die down.
The final was marred with several iconic moments, such as Virat Kohli's innings, Jasprit Bumrah's heroics, and Suryakumar Yadav's catch. However, presenter Jatin Sapru also stole the limelight for his epic commentary during SKY's catch.
Similar to how Ravi Shastri's 'MS Dhoni finishes it off in style ' commentary during the 2011 World Cup final six will go down into history, Sapru's 'Long-off… long off… LONG OFFFFFFFF! Suryakumar Yadav! Suryakumar Yadav ne pakda hai apne career ka sabse important catch," has also found his way into the history books.
In the latest events, Jatin has opened up on the iconic moment and revealed that he felt it had nothing extra-ordinary in it.
" When the ball flew off the bat, the first two seconds I didn't say anything. Because from that angle, the trajectory wasn't picked. The ball got lost. It's easier to pick it from the side, but not from that angle. You want to pick up the speed at which the ball is coming. So I took a couple of seconds, and with the wind that there was, I felt it was going to be a six," Sapru remarked.
"Then I got up and saw from the corner of the eye someone starting to run in a very interesting manner, so that was the first 'long-off'. That long off was for being interested. The second 'long-off' was because he was coming closer. And the third ‘long-off' was because I saw Surya take the catch. And I literally saw him for a fraction of a second before he went in front of the sightscreen. I didn't have a vision beyond that. I had forgotten the screen. I was watching it live," added Sapru.
"You can't prepare for that moment. I don't think I said anything extraordinary. All I said was who was interested and then Suryakumar Yadav was the guy who has pulled off a miracle. We had spent our whole lives watching Kapil Dev's catch of Viv Richards. You just realised and then the context came to me that this has got to be the biggest catch of his career. So great view."
SKY's catch turned out to be the turning point in the game, as his catch got rid of dangerous David Miller.