The Greatest Catch in Cricket History | Vidoes
Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews introduced “Relay Catch” to cricket last night when he took a blinder at mid-wicket boundary before throwing it to Mahela Jayawardene who completed the catch.
Angelo Mathews Catch. Courtesy: Getty Images
The incident took place during the second Twenty20 International match between Sri Lanka and Australia at Pallekele Stadium in Kandy which changed the complexion of the match.
As per the cricket rules set by the ruling body International Cricket Council (ICC), the fielder must stand in ground and stay inside the boundary line catching the ball cleanly to claim wicket.
Australian opening batsman David Warner hit an in-dipper carom ball by orthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis towards the mid-wicket boundary which was being patrolled by Angelo Mathews. The young but thinking all-rounder had to move towards his left and backwards to take the catch and while he took the catch successfully the running momentum was soon taking him across the boundary, which meant the batsman would have got six runs.
Angelo Mathews while running backwards showed great presence of mind and hurled the ball towards Mahela Jayawardene who was fielding at Square-Leg boundary and the former skipper easily pouched the ball to complete the catch thus bringing about dismissal of dangerous-looking Warner.
The cricket fans across the world have relished the catch broadly and most of them have regarded this as the best catch ever in the history of the game.
We have had a huge number of brilliant catches, some inside the circle and others right at the boundary line, but this one was special in many ways. First of all, Angelo Mathews had very little time to catch and then think about completing it. Secondly, he had to look for somebody who was close enough to complete his catch. And thirdly, he had to save himself from doing any damage to his body.
Mathews did all the three things professionally and showed real athleticism as put by his teammate Mahela Jayawardene who gave the whole credit of the catch to the young man.
As Mahela completed the catch, the whole stadium as well as David Warner was stunned and then the crowd woke up and started celebrating the dismissal while poor Warner had nothing but his luck to blame for such a bizarre way of getting out.
Following Mathews’ catch, the whole complexion of the match changed completely as Australian batsmen then resigned to some brilliant bowling by Ajantha Mendis, who became the first bowler to capture six wickets in Twenty20 cricket. Mendis finished with six for 16 from his four overs, the best spell of bowling by anyone in T20 cricket’s history superseding Pakistani fast bowler Umar Gul’s record of five wickets for six runs which he captured during the ICC World T20 2009 in England.
Angelo Mathews’ catch is by far one of the best catches in the history of the game and when you watch it with the other top catches, the excitement takes another stride forward.
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