 "England cricket team")
One of the greatest highlights from the first match of the 2019 Cricket World Cup was Ben Stokes’ stunning one-handed catch to remove Andile Phehlukwayo in the deep on Thursday. "To be honest I was in the wrong position," The Guardian quoted the all-rounder as saying about the catch.
As England's ICC cricket world cup 2019 campaign got underway with an emphatic 104-run win over South Africa, Stokes was seen at his dominant best. He top-scored with 89 in England’s winning total of 311/8 off 50 overs. And then, on field, apart from his catch, Stokes also played a role in a run-out — thanks to these two wickets, the Proteas were bundled out for 207 in 39.5 overs by the tournament favourites.
With 46 days still left in the ICC cricket world cup 2019, it is expected that fans will see some brilliant fielding efforts from India and Australia, among others, given that these two sides have some superb fielders in the line-up. India have the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli, while Australia’s David Warner and Usman Khawaja have shown their fielding excellence in recent past.
Let’s take a look at top 4 stunning catches in One Day Internationals (ODIs) that changed the complexion of matches:
Yuvraj Singh
In the semifinal match of 2002 ICC champions trophy, South Africa were marching towards victory when Yuvraj Singh, then a youngster, took a brilliant catch to remove Jonty Rhodes. Yuvraj Singh was the hero in that match for also scoring a sparkling 62 down the order and taking two catches that turned the match on its head. The first of those was a typical Yuvraj special, leaping away to dismiss Graeme Smith off Zaheer Khan’s bowling.
The second one was more special perhaps because of its timing. South Africa were 194 for 1 in the 39th over, needing 68 runs off 71 balls to win when Jonty Rhodes mistimed a sweep off Harbhajan Singh to get a top edge.
Yuvraj who was fielding at short fine-leg, dashed across like a panther and dived to take a splendid one-handed catch to send back Rhodes. That triggered a collapse as South Africa lost 6 wickets and fell short of the Indian total by 10 runs in the end.
Jonty Rhodes
Jonty Rhodes was regarded as the superman in the South Africa squad before AB de Villiers came to the scene. Among many, and probably the best, of Rhodes’ stunners came in the 1999 cricket World Cup. This time, he flew upright but could only get his fingers to the ball. However, he showed amazing reflexes and completed the catch on the rebound while on his way down.
Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood is also considered one of the greatest fielders in modern cricket. He took a magnificent catch, flying upright at backward point to remove the dangerous Mathew Hayden. The brilliant catch can be summed up in the way Hayden reacted after the completion of catch.
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting has taken some brilliant catches in his career and one of the best came against India. Sachin Tendulkar cut through the backward point for a couple of runs and then went square off the next ball. Ricky Ponting, standing at backward point, leapt on his right hand side and took a one-handed stunner to remove the master blaster.
