"Open your mind a little" - Aakash Chopra on questions about Suryakumar Yadav's catch in IND vs SA 2024 T20 World Cup final

Aakash Chopra has urged people questioning the legitimacy of Suryakumar Yadav's catch in India's 2024 T20 World Cup final win against South Africa to apply their brains. The sensational catch dismissed the dangerous David Miller when the Proteas needed 16 runs off the final over.

Miller's dismissal helped India beat South Africa by seven runs in the summit clash in Barbados on Saturday, June 29. However, some questions were raised about whether Suryakumar had touched the skirting while taking the catch and if it had been moved back beforehand.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra criticized people who claimed that Suryakumar potentially pushed the skirting back.

"People said the original white line was visible and it means the skirting would have been pushed behind with the feet. Then I say, nothing was pushed, push your brain a little. Open your mind a little and understand the rules," he said (3:10).

The former India opener pointed out that the visible white line would have been the boundary when a previous game was played on a different pitch.

"It's absolutely correct that the line is considered the boundary but do you know why the line was ahead of the skirting? It's because there are many pitches on the ground. So when the match shifts from one pitch to another, the boundary ropes are adjusted, and this was not the first match to be played in Barbados," Chopra explained.

"So the markings were done for the original pitch, and then you changed them because the ground dimensions are going to change. The moment they change, those lines are left behind, and that's about it, there is nothing more to it," he added.

Chopra noted that Suryakumar wouldn't have had an intuition that a catch would come to him and resultantly pushed the skirting back across 20 to 30 meters. He added that the white line was there when both South Africa and India were fielding and the skirting was behind that.

---

"Everything was absolutely clear" - Aakash Chopra on Suryakumar Yadav not touching the skirting

Suryakumar Yadav disclosed that he felt the World Cup was flying over the boundary. [P/C: BCCI]

Aakash Chopra pointed out that Suryakumar Yadav didn't tough the skirting either.

"Suryakumar Yadav took the catch, he was inside, he threw the ball up when he was going outside, and then he caught the ball after coming back. Everything was absolutely clear. There was no angle which didn't show it with clarity," he said (2:30).

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the plethora of cameras would have caught it if it was otherwise.

"There were enough cameras. It's the truth with every international game. In fact, we had 26 cameras in the Bengal Pro T20 league, and this was the ICC World Cup. There are 30-40 cameras, nothing is hidden from them," Chopra observed.

South Africa needed 16 runs off the final five balls after David Miller's dismissal. Hardik Pandya conceded only eight runs to help India win their second T20 World Cup trophy.