Pakistan cricket team’s fielding is a comedy at the best of times, unless you are a Pakistani supporter of course. Pakistan fielders continued to provide comic relief throughout the recently concluded Asia Cup as well with their ordinary efforts. One area where they excelled in providing comic relief was when they tried to take skiers, as their fielders inevitably kept crashing into each other.
Throughout the competition, whenever the opposition’s batsman hit the ball high in the air against Pakistan, inevitably there were two Pakistan fielders going for the same catch crashing into each other. Miraculously, till the finals, all those catches were caught. However, their luck ran out in the final when Asif Ali and Shadab Khan collided while trying to catch Sri Lankan batsman Rajapaksa, and worse, the ball ended up going for a six after the collision.
Those 6 runs combined with the 14 more Rajapaksa scored in the last over after the drop played a key role in getting Sri Lanka over the line as Pakistan were left to rue their chances. The comical dropped catch and the resultant six, when the ball wasn’t going for a six if no fielder had intervened, gave birth to a series of memes.
While netizens across the cricketing world were making fun of the two fielders for their combined efforts to turn a wicket into a six, even police departments decided to join the fun. Delhi Police decided to use the video of the collision between the two Pakistan fielders to highlight the importance of keeping your eyes open on the road, lest an accident like this happen.
Using the lyrics from the famous Bollywood song ‘Ae bhai, zara dekh ke chalo’ from the movie ‘Mera Naam Joker’, Delhi Police used the video of the dropped catch to stress the importance of keeping your eyes open on the road.
Ae Bhai, Zara Dekh Ke Chalo#RoadSafety #AsiaCup2022Final pic.twitter.com/gepAVvrO33
— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) September 12, 2022
This is not the first time that a police department in India has tried to use cricketing mistakes to promote traffic rules. In 2017, after Jasprit Bumrah bowled an expensive No Ball in the Champions Trophy Final, Jaipur Traffic Police used that to caution drivers that they shouldn’t cross the line. However, Bumrah didn’t take too kindly to that and called them out multiple times through his Twitter account.
@traffic_jpr well done Jaipur traffic police this shows how much respect you get after giving your best for the country. pic.twitter.com/y0PU6v9uEc
— Jasprit Bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) June 23, 2017
In the Asia Cup Final, Sri Lanka comfortably beat Pakistan by 23 runs in the end after scoring 170 runs, while Pakistan could only manage 147 runs in reply. The chief architect of Sri Lankan victory was Rajapaksa, who benefitted from that dropped catch.
