Glenn Maxwell diving catch: The Australian all-rounder played a pivotal role in picking an early wicket this afternoon.
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During the first ODI of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of Australia in Cairns, Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell grabbed an acrobatic catch to draw first blood after captain Aaron Finch won the toss and chose to field.
It all happened on the fourth delivery of the fifth over when New Zealand opening batter Martin Guptill (6) pushing at a Mitchell Starc delivery resulted in his dismissal.
Bowling from over the wicket, Starc made the ball to leave Guptill. With the right-handed batter falling for the trap, a thick-ish outside edge saw the ball travelling towards the left of Maxwell at backward point.
Glenn Maxwell diving catch to dismiss Martin Guptill in Cairns ODI
The challenge in front of Maxwell, on this particular occasion, wasn’t to cover a lot of distance but to react quickly to grab a ball which was travelling at some speed. An inch-perfect fielding attempt from the 33-year old player made the catch look fairly easy during slow-motion replays than it actually was.
“[Ball] Always leaving Glenn Maxwell. The left hand went out and he held. What a talent the Big Show is! Teammate enjoyed that,” Fox Sports commentator said to describe Maxwell’s catch at the Cazaly’s Stadium today.
ICYMI: Glenn Maxwell has a rare habit of making the extremely difficult look very, very easy #AUSvNZ pic.twitter.com/vw8AisJ3zy
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) September 6, 2022
A conventional approach to an ODI innings has seen the visitors scoring 97/2 in 25 overs. Not able to make the most of spending time in the middle, Guptill’s opening partner Devon Conway (46) became the second Kiwi batter to get out after completely missing a sweep off Australia spinner Adam Zampa.
While Australia included batter Marnus Labuschagne in their Playing XI for all-rounder Ashton Agar in a solitary major change, New Zealand have left out batter Finn Allen and pacer Tim Southee.
