Picture Credit: Twitter
It was a superb cricketing day at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 on Saturday. While it was the Super 12 opener which witnessed New Zealand humble the defending champions Australia by handing them a 89-run defeat, the second fixture saw England register a win over Afghanistan but not in as clinical a manner as they would have liked, losing 5 wickets in their chase of a modest 112.
One thing that stood out in both matches though was the high standard of fielding, especially by the winning teams. Both New Zealand and England did remarkably well, taking almost all their chances. An early contender for the catch of the tournament is Glenn Phillips' catch to see the back of Marcus Stoinis. Phillips' took the catch in the second ball of the 9th over of the Australian run chase.
After playing an aerial stroke off Mitchell Santner, Stoinis was looking for a couple of runs as the ball seemed to be heading towards an unguarded territory on the field on the off side. However, Phillips sprinted and covered quite a distance running to his left from deep cover and diving full-length to get both his hands underneath the ball. The video of his Superman effort has gone viral on the internet.
And now former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has said that he would rate this catch as the best of the tournament despite it coming in the opening match of the Super 12 stage.
Later in the day, Liam Livingstone and Jos Buttler also completed some brilliant catches in the game against Afghanistan to aid their team to victory.
Meanwhile, the biggest talking point of the hour is the India vs Pakistan match scheduled to happen on October 23 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia. While India had faced their first-ever defeat to the Men in Green in any World Cup fixture (ODIs or T20Is), this time around India would want to come back to winning ways.
Although there are chances of rain during the match, fans are hoping to see a full game as another chapter in this celebrated cricket rivalry unfolds in Australia.
