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Greatest Catch Ever

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Barney Rubble said:
AC Gilchrist c Strauss b Flintoff.

In my view, potentially the defining moment of a decade or more of international cricket. The moment it began to become Australia who were staring in disbelief at what the opposition were capable of, rather than vice versa.
Seriously, you do this in every single thread involving the greatest anything, pull out some random example from the last Ashes series. You really liked winning the Ashes, hey? :p
 

Natman20

International Debutant
I think there has been to much hype over the past ashes series. It seems that all the best moments in cricket have come from that series :wacko: mainly from anybody English here anyway
 

James90

Cricketer Of The Year
Eclipse said:
Also one Ricky Ponting took off some South African dude a few years ago.. think it might have been Mckenzie.
You're thinking of Ponting's catch to dismiss Sinclair and then Hayden's catch to dismiss Dippenaar. Both very similar and occurred in the same season.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
Nathan Astle to dismiss Shaun Pollock in the dieing overs of a one-day game in 1998/99 (I'm not sure where- Napier, perhaps. But we lost when Klusener hit the last ball for 6)

It had it all. He was fielding on the boundary at long-on, the ball was hit straight and hard, Astle sprinted as fast as he could, dove absolutely full length, and took the ball inches off the ground, one-handed, in his left hand (he's right handed, of course). It had pretty much every element of a great catch covered.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
Just looked up the cricinfo report of the match. Reminded me that it was on my 14th birthday. Klusener's 6 certainly soured the day for me.

The bits in bold are about the catch.


New Zealand v South Africa, Fourth ODI
CricInfo match report - 26 March 1999
CricInfo report


South Africa levelled the one-day series at 2-2 today in sensational fashion, Lance Klusener hitting a six off the last ball of the game to snatch victory over New Zealand by two wickets.

The fourth one-day international of the series at McLean Park, Napier, had been rescheduled for today after rain cut short Thursday's day-night match after South Africa had faced only 9 balls in pursuit of New Zealand's 257.

The fixture was rescheduled as a day game today, but morning rain put paid to any chance of a 10.15am start. Play eventually began at midday, each side to face 40 overs. Hansie Cronje won the toss and put New Zealand into bat, a decision that started to bear fruit when Matthew Horne was dismissed for 1.

In a bold move by NZ captain Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori was sent in at first-drop to act as a pinch-hitter. The move failed as Vettori scored 7. Astle (18) fell to Kallis' first ball of the day, and the first 15 overs yielded 65 runs. Fleming (23) was run out by a Pollock direct hit, and New Zealand were 68 for 4.

Twose and Parore added 93 for the fifth wicket, but after the NZ wicketkeeper was dismissed for 37, the home side's hopes of a score well into the 200's evaporated as the tail collapsed. Roger Twose's fine 77 ball unbeaten 79 was all that held the New Zealand innings together, all out for 191 after 38.4 overs, eight balls short of their allotted total.

Pollock (3/33) and Kallis (3/41) were the best bowlers in an innings where eight overs per player was the limit. Allan Donald and Lance Klusener claimed one each. Donald was able to bowl only five overs, straining his stomach muscles again. He will take no further part in the tour.

The South African pursuit of 192 started sensationally, Gary Kirsten fending a Geoff Allott delivery straight to Chris Harris at backward point on the opening delivery of the innings. Allott removed Kallis for 4 before Gibbs (52) and Cullinan (61) added 88 for the third wicket. Cullinan hit three fours and two sixes (off Bulfin and Astle) in his knock.

When Shaun Pollock was gone for 16, South Africa were 162 for 7 from 37.2 overs. With South Africa needing 30 runs from 16 balls, it seemed that NZ were poised to seal the game up. Pollock's dismissal was perhaps the catch of the season. The South African all-rounder (who earlier in the day became the fastest player to reach the 1000 run/100 wicket double in ODI's) smashed the ball in the air down the ground, Nathan Astle racing around from long on to take the catch left-handed at full stretch.

With Mark Boucher and his runner joining Klusener at the crease, the remainder of the 38th over (bowled by Nash) consisted of a single to Klusener, a no-ball, a leg-bye, and two Klusener fours. Nineteen runs to win from two overs.

Geoff Allott gave up 8 runs from the 39th over, and then it was Dion Nash bowling to Lance Klusener. The first ball was a single. Boucher pulled the second straight to Twose at midwicket. Significantly, the batsmen crossed while the catch was taken, so Klusener was back on strike. Ten to win from four balls.

The third ball of the over, Klusener smashed Nash to the backward point fence. Six to win from three balls.

Ball four, Klusener can manage only a single, and loses the strike to Steve Elworthy. Ball five, Elworthy gets a single, Klusener has the strike once more. Four to win off the final ball. The pressure ball from Nash goes sailing over the long-on fence, and South Africa win. Klusener's unbeaten 35 came from 19 deliveries.

The rescheduled game means a hectic schedule for both sides with game five in the series at Eden Park, Auckland tomorrow afternoon, the New Zealand team leaving Napier within minutes of Friday's loss having been completed.

Lance Klusener won the man of the match. After the match Hansie Cronje described Astle's catch of Pollock as the best outfield catch his players will probably ever see.
 

Barney Rubble

International Coach
FaaipDeOiad said:
Seriously, you do this in every single thread involving the greatest anything, pull out some random example from the last Ashes series. You really liked winning the Ashes, hey? :p
Oh, yeah. :p :D

It's partly because it's all fresh in my mind really - and the Ashes series is the only series so far that I've been able to watch nigh on every ball of. I've missed bits of most of England's series in recent years for one reason or another, and I don't get to watch much cricket that doesn't involve England as I don't have Sky TV. Also, there was a lot of damn good cricket played in that series.

Just to prove I have watched cricket that isn't the Ashes, my coach showed us a video about ten years ago called "Jonty Rhodes' Guide to Fielding" - it was basically a collection of stupidly agile throws, catches and stops by Jonty, interspersed with a bit of "if the ball comes to you, just launch yourself eight feet in the air and catch it! Easy!". There were at least three or four catches in there that I thought would have to be the greatest ever when I saw them.

I also saw an unbelievable catch in a domestic game from Jamie Dalrymple of Middlesex two years ago - a diving, twisting, one-handed, above-the-head deal at backward point, that was fantastic, as was a catch taken by David Masters of Leicestershire in the Twenty20 Semi-Final last season.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
Another good catch was Jacob Oram catching Harbhajan Singh at gully in one of the low-scoring tests in NZ in 2002/03. The ball spliced Harbhajan and lobbed into the air. Oram showed pretty amazing athleticism to leap as high as he could in the air to get it, and then juggled it as he was coming down and somehow managed to hold it. It looked really spectacular, especially on slow-mo.
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Tubby Taylor's one at slip where he fumbled it, fell over and then kicked it back up and caught it was simply brilliant
 

deeps

International 12th Man
i dnt think that catch shld be considered, it was a relatively easy catch to begin with, he muffed it, and then recovered. Should have got it first go though
 

SquidAU

First Class Debutant
andyc said:
Tubby Taylor's one at slip where he fumbled it, fell over and then kicked it back up and caught it was simply brilliant
I believe that one happened during the 1996/97 Sir Frank Worrell Trophy series against the Windies......don't ask me which test though....so long ago!
 

Blaze

Banned
The best catch I have seen live was at a domestic final where Marvin Passupati took a stunner. A similar catch to sinclair's but better because the ball was hit harder and flatter.
 

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