How a peerless catch flips the emotional script

History has a curious way of compressing entire events into a single enduring image, a defining moment that seems to hang in the air longer than the ball itself.

- Somshuvra Laha

Until that six in 2011, that image will forever be of Kapil Dev running backward, looking over his shoulders with his eyes peeled to a towering pull by Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final. Lord's then, Wankhede now, it's confounding how cricket keeps circling back to similar moments seeking similar highs.

Axar Patel would at least hope so. Between India and the chance to set up the stage for a rare T20 World Cup double on a hot, humid Mumbai evening stood Harry Brook. Jasprit Bumrah was the usual suspect, bowling a slower delivery first ball that lured Brook into throwing his bat at it. Speared high into the sky, the ball was swirling away, but not far enough from Axar who ran back from point almost 15 metres, watching the ball drop over his shoulder before finally taking a catch that immediately jogged memories of 1983.