New Zealand’s Martin Guptill took what could go down as the best catch of ICC World Cup 2019 to dismiss Steve Smith on Saturday at Lord’s. Hours later, Smith himself replied with another fantastic one-handed catch to send back Guptill’s teammate Tom Latham on a day where fielding ruled and bowlers scared the daylight of the batsmen.
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In the 12th over of the New Zealand innings, Lockie Ferguson aimed a 142 km/h short delivery at Steve Smith’s body. The latter did well to quickly transfer his weight to the backfoot and play a good enough pull shot but to Smith’s dismay, Guptill, standing at leg-gully leapt in the air and flung his left hand to pluck the ball out of thin air.
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Australia were reduced to 46 for 3 due to Guptill’s brilliance and Smith had to take the long walk back for 5.
Amazingly, Guptill had earlier given two lives to Usman Khawaja. While the first one was a an extremely difficult chance, the second one – a much easier one at second slip - should have been taken by Guptill. The Kiwi opener more than made up for his lapses with his one-handed stunner to dismiss Steve Smith a few minutes later.
{{/usCountry}}Amazingly, Guptill had earlier given two lives to Usman Khawaja. While the first one was a an extremely difficult chance, the second one – a much easier one at second slip - should have been taken by Guptill. The Kiwi opener more than made up for his lapses with his one-handed stunner to dismiss Steve Smith a few minutes later.
{{/usCountry}}“It was an epic catch. He had a couple of practices with some tough ones,” joked Williamson.
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“It certainly took something pretty special – despite the plan – to hang on to that catch. One of the best catches you’ll ever see.”
Williamson indicated that perhaps he was expecting Guptill to be called into action for a looping catch at leg gully, off a Ferguson short ball, rather than a full-blooded pull. But in the end, the result was all the same for the skipper.
“We’ve done it a few times before. Obviously Steve’s a world-class player, we were trying to be a bit creative.
“Whether he was there for the pull shot, I can’t quite reveal that,” Williamson laughed.
“But he was there was something in the air, so that was nice, and he held onto it beautifully.”
Williamson and Guptill, however, had no idea that they would be at the receiving end of a similar fielding effort a couple of hours later when Steve Smith too held on to an outstanding one-handed catch to dismiss Tom Latham.
In the 36th over of New Zealand’s chase, Latham flicked a Starc delivery with the hope of getting a boundary but to his surprise, Smith, standing at short mid-wicket dived towards his right to take a brilliant catch.
New Zealand were reduced to 125 for six, chasing 244 for victory and eventually lost the match by 86 runs. Mitchell Starc returned with staggering figures of 5 for 26 to bowl New Zealand out for 157.
Earlier, some fantastic rearguard action by Usman Khawaja (88) and Alex Carey (71) dragged Australia to 243 after they were reduced to 92 for 5.