Euro 2016 effect: James Franklin uses his ‘football skills’ to dismiss Ravi Bopara

Euro 2016 effect: James Franklin uses his 'football skills' to dismiss Ravi Bopara

Few days back, it was Indian captain MS Dhoni who showed his footballs skills on couple of occasions during the ninth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) and now another cricketer did something similar; not behind the stumps, albeit in front of the wickets. It happened during the NatWest Twenty20 (T20) Blast tournament’s match between Essex and Middlesex. Also Watch: MS Dhoni shows his football skills, once again

Essex were chasing a decent total of 174 and on the last ball of the seventh over bowled by New Zealand pacer James Franklin, something interesting happened. He bowled a good length delivery to Dan Lawerence, which went a bit towards the leg side and crashed on the batsman’s stomach. Dan struggled for a moment but since the non-striker Ravi Bopara called for a single, he ran and in between Franklin moved towards the ball and flaunted his football skills with his fancy footwork by deflecting the ball towards stumps. The ball touched the stumps and a shocked-Bopara was gone. Franklin’s footwork, which earned his side a bonus wicket, was a good example of presence of mind. It might be the Euro 2016 effect as well, which commenced on Friday night. Also Watch: MS Dhoni’s crazy football skills along with Virat Kohli’s brilliant presence of mind

Further, Essex failed to chase the total and Middlesex won the match by 17 runs.