Dele Alli is winning at cricket, social media

Here at Cartilage Free Captain, we love dissecting what Tottenham Hotspur players do in their downtime. It’s one of our most beloved activities. In the past we have done deep-dives on wild-ass UNO tournaments, bromances, and wicked games of Settlers of Catan. But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before. Today on his social media feeds, Dele posted what looks like Tottenham security camera footage of a Spurs indoor intra-squad cricket match, and Dele did a pretty cool thing.

Check it out. And keep watching to the end.

Now, as a red-blooded American, I am naturally predisposed to think of cricket as naught but tea-sipping, gentrified, sub-par baseball with funny-sounding words like “wicket,” “googly,” and “snickometer.” But I know a good play when I see one, and even my uncultured colonial ass can recognize that what Dele did just there is pretty dang amazing.

We’re not 100% sure who the batter is (we’re pretty sure the pitcher (bowler?) is Jack Clarke), but we’re going to say it was Joe Hart, which makes it funnier. Watch Hart’s reaction as Dele and the rest of the team celebrates that catch: he just stands there. Is that awe? Embarrassment? Amazement? (Porque no los tres?) One imagines that is the look Hart has after watching a ball go into his net at the near post after ricocheting off of someone’s ass.

I still have a bunch of questions. Why indoor cricket? Doesn’t that ball hurt? Won’t they break something? Can you really make a catch by deflecting the ball off your own foot? What the hell is a “googly” anyway? These are questions for another day.

I also like the idea of Dele making that play, realizing that somewhere in the training complex is a security office with video surveillance footage, and then taking the time to hunt that footage down and edit it with ball tracing and Deal-With-It glasses for benefit of social media. That, my friends, is #banter. And while he might not be winning on the pitch, Dele is still the Tottenham undefeated champion.