Black Caps star Rachin Ravindra snatched a key wicket when an unlucky South African batter belted the ball into his own toe before it flicked up to be caught by a close-in fielder.
The freak catch even caught the fielder unaware: Will Young – apparently thinking the ball hadbounced off the ground, not the batter’s toe –immediately threw the ball at the stumps in an attempt to get a runout.
Footage shows the Black Caps players appear not to be appealing for the catch but rather urging the umpire to award a hopeful runout call after batter David Bedingham regained his ground. But replays showed the Black Caps’ remarkable good fortune with the catch and the hapless Protea was dismissed for 39 of 102 deliveries.
It was the Kiwi allrounder’s third wicket of the day, the full-ish delivery pitching just in front of Bedingham who misjudged the flight of the ball as he attempted to flick it away.
The umpire called for a review of the video incident which revealed the catch. New Zealand’s luck contrasted with Australia’s misfortune at the weekend when they were denied a runout wicket in an ODI against the West Indies, the umpire adjudging that no one had appealed for the dismissal after Mitchell Marsh collected the ball in the field and threw it to Spencer Johnson who broke the stumps with Alzarri Joseph short of his ground.
In cricket, any appeal covers all modes of dismissal, so the Black Caps’ calling for the runout to be awarded was rewarded with the catch.
Bedingham had been one of the few bright lights for South Africa in the first test - when the visitors were set a mammoth target of 529 at Bay Oval in Tauranga, the right-hander scored 87 runs off 96 balls with 13 fours and three sixes.
