Ben Stokes talks about his acrobatic fielding effort to save a certain six

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is all about entertainment and hitting biggies out of the ground is one among them. Some of the attempted big shots often find the fielder in the deep. Stellar boundary catches are witnessed every season, and on Sunday, between Rising Pune Supergiant and Royal Challengers Bangalore, it was Pune’s Ben Stokes who saved a six with an incredible catch, dive and throw. However, Stokes isn’t happy with his effort and says he should have instead held the catch.

The visiting bowlers were defending their mere target of 161 runs against the hosts at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. RCB needed 39 off 15 to win the clash. But Stoke’s splendid catch to dismiss Stuart Binny completed turned the game into Pune’s favor.

His arms were between his legs, and the English all-rounder pushed the ball towards teammate Dan Christian to restrict the Royal Challengers to a solitary run.

“Ben Stokes, you genius! That’s a single after all that commotion. Have a look at this. Look at the match awareness. That’s unbelievable,” Brett Lee remarked in the commentary box.

“He’s not going to get 10 out of 10 for the dive or the poise,” Danny Morrison added.

While the visitors sealed the deal by 27 runs, Stokes had a funny explanation to why he could not hold on to the ball and had to push it towards his teammate.

He reveals that he had actually dropped the ball, which made him fall over again and lose his balance.

“To be honest I’d actually dropped it, which made me fall over again and made me lose my balance. I managed to look up and see Dan but there was no way of flicking it back to him so I just thought I just had to try and save six. I probably should’ve backed myself to catch that but it just slipped out of my hands in the end.”