A player with the calibre of AB de Villiers can never be written off during a match.

The South Africa skipper had a rare failure with the bat in his team’s ongoing ICC Champions Trophy opener against Sri Lanka but made amends for it by grabbing an absolute gem of a catch that has helped the Proteas to claw their way back into the match.

Chasing 300, Sri Lanka were off to a flying start with Upul Tharanga and Niroshan Dickwell adding 69 runs for the first wicket before the latter was dismissed by Morne Morkel. But Tharanga and Kusal Mendis seemed to have settled down, as they comfortably added 25 runs for the second wicket.

However, just as they were looking to lay the foundation for an exciting chase, Mendis’ short innings came to an end courtesy of a brilliant one-handed catch by de Villiers.

Chris Morris’ length ball came to Mendis’ bat after sticking a bit on the pitch but the batsman still managed to flick it quite well. The ball was looking destined to fly over de Villiers, who was standing at mid-on. However, the South Africa star timed his jump to perfection and pouched the ball with his outstretched right hand. The ball was almost behind him when he completed the sensational grab.

Here is a clip of that stunner:

https://twitter.com/lKR1088/status/871022865855913984