"If he'd been a tenth of a second later with his jump, that would have been another Samuels six." Photo / Getty Images
Daniel Vettori had a touch under three seconds to pull off his spectacular catch against the West Indies in Wellington on Saturday.
In that time he had to move to his left, judge the flight of a ball travelling about 90km/h and time his 60cm jump to within a quarter
of a second. He didn't get it exactly right but still managed to claim one of the great catches.
Marcus Wilson, a physicist who lectures at Waikato University, estimated 3.2 seconds elapsed from the time Trent Boult's delivery left Marlon Samuels' bat to the time Vettori's heels landed on Wellington Regional Stadium turf with the ball clutched in his left hand.
"I reckon he jumped a fraction too late," said Dr Wilson. "In order for his hand to be in the right place to make a catch at full stretch, he's got about a quarter of a second window.
"If he jumps too soon, he'll be on his way down as the ball passes over his hand. If he jumps too early, he'll still be heading up when it passes his fingertips. In the case of this catch, he's a touch late on the jump and he just gets the ball in his fingertips as he's still rising. If he'd been a tenth of a second later with his jump, that would have been another Samuels six."
