Watch - 'Fielding effort of the century': Ashton Agar sends social media into frenzy with sensational effort in 1st ODI
Australia's Ashton Agar made a showstopper of a fielding effort to deny England's Dawid Malan a six.
Australia started life under Pat Cummins as ODI captain with a win over reigning 50-over and T20I world champions England in the first ODI in Adelaide. The recent T20 World Cup, which was hosted in Australia and England had won, had featured a number of quite sensational fielding efforts that ranged from great catches to almost inhuman jumps and flicks at the boundary to deny batters sixes.
A similar effort was seen during the first ODI as well, with Ashton Agar going aerial and pulling out all stops to deny centurion Dawid Malan a six. It was the last ball of the 45th over bowled by captain Cummins. The pacer dug it in short and Malan, who had scored 131 runs by then, pulled it powerfully over deep midwicket. The ball was going at some pace and Agar jumped full stretch at the ropes, grabbed the ball with his left hand and flicked it back while being in the air.
His jump, catch and flick were all perfectly timed and the batters could only run a single.
The catch, as one would expect, sent quite a few ripples across social media.
Malan's career-beat 134 not out went in vain as England ended up losing the match by six wickets. Four days after winning the T20 World Cup in Melbourne, England slumped to 66-4 in the 14th over as Australia's pace attack, led by Cummins (3-62), breathed fire with the new ball, vindicating their decision to field.
Phil Salt perished in the slip, Jason Roy and Sam Billings were bowled through the gate while James Vince departed caught behind. Malan counter-attacked in the middle overs, hitting four sixes -- two of them off the bowling of Cummins -- and 12 fours before holing out in the deep in the 46th over.
David Willey's unbeaten 34 was the next highest score by an England batter as the tourists went on to post a decent 287-9 at the Adelaide Oval. A 147-run opening stand between David Warner (86) and Travis Head (69) effectively laid the platform for Australia's comprehensive victory.
Chris Jordan broke the stand by taking the wicket of Head while Willey dismissed Warner and Marnus Labuschagne in his successive overs but Steve Smith, who made 80 not out, stayed put and sealed victory, hitting Malan for a six. The teams move to Sydney for the second ODI on Saturday to be followed by the third and final match in Melbourne on Tuesday.