Mitchell Marsh dismisses Stephen Cook with an incredible flying catch

Mitchell Marsh celebrates after pulling off a blinder in the first over in the Aus vs SA first Test match at WACA

The Australian cricket summer kicked off today with the first Test match of the Australia vs South Africa series at the WACA in Perth. And what an epic beginning!

The Proteas won the toss and chose to bat first. Openers Stephen Cook and Dean Elgar walked out to bat. Aussie pace spearhead Mitchell Starc, who is playing with an open wound in his knee, from a freak accident during training after the Aussies’ tour to Sri Lanka, was at it from the word go, bowling with a great amount of pace and on the third ball he beat Cook’s outside edge with a beauty of a delivery as the ball angled away just enough from the right-hander who ended up playing inside the line and was beaten all ends up.

Marsh flies to hold on to the catch to dismiss Stephen Cook

And the next ball, Cook was dismissed by a screamer of an effort from Mitchell Marsh in the gully area. Starc pitched the ball on the back of a length on off stump, and the ball swayed away just a touch, catching Cook’s outside edge and flew to Marsh at gully, who flew through the air to his left to take a magnificent diving catch and reward Starc's good early bowling, with zero runs on the board for the Proteas.

Hashim Amla was the next batsman to walk in after Cook’s dismissal, but could not last long as he was caught at second slip by captain Steve Smith off the bowling of Starc’s new ball partner Josh Hazlewood for a duck.

The Australians kept the pressure on the African batters and not so long after, Hazlewood took center stage again, as he dismissed the other opener, Dean Elgar for twelve runs, getting a faint nick off his bat before Peter Nevill completed the catch behind the stumps. The horror start continued for the Proteas as left-hander Jean-Paul Duminy was the next to depart giving Peter Siddle his first wicket on his return.

Although Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma staged a recovery of sorts, they were both dismissed to leave South Africa reeling at 152-6. At the time of writing, the Proteas were 168-6 with Quinton de Kock leading another fightback.  

But the action of the morning belonged to the two Mitchell’s of the Australian team, Starc and Marsh, as they combined in an incredible manner to make an early inroad into the South African batting line-up on the first day’s play. 

You can watch Marsh’s stunner here – Marsh's Stunning Catch to Dismiss Cook