[Watch] Superman Corey Anderson takes a potential catch-of-the-season in MLC 2024 Challenger
On a day when the San Fransisco Unicorns and the Texas Super Kings combined to drop 10 catches, some of them quite easy, Corey Anderson took an absolute stunner at mid-off, leaping and grabbing a fast-traveling ball with one hand.
It was perhaps the most important wicket, too -- his opposite number and Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis. The right-hander was batting brilliantly on 45 (22) with a strike rate of over 200 and had already been dropped twice in the short span.
Pacer Carmi le Roux made him reach for a slower one in the fifth over, which he tried to chip over mid-off and got a decent connection on it. But Anderson was prepared, getting his left hand up immediately and back-peddling to settle himself under it, before timing his jump to perfection to pluck it out of the air.
Watch the video here:
The catch effectively changed the match. The Super Kings were chasing 201 in the knock-out game and after Du Plessis' wicket with the score at 55/1, Aaron Hardie came out and tried a few shots but couldn't handle the pressure and got out for 19. Milind Kumar and Marcus Stoinis followed soon after.
Du Plessis' partner, Devon Conway, anchored the innings well but just didn't have enough support from the other end when he was struggling to muscle sixes. Youngster Joshua Tromp did score a brilliant 56 (36) but not before taking a bit too much time to get going at the start, which ended up counting big in a 10-run loss.
Moments like that will help us go further: Corey Anderson
Faf du Plessis was also the top run-scorer in the tournament. Corey Anderson played down his skills for the catch but admitted that such moments can push his team even further.
"Look that was one of those catches," he said after the match. "It is moments like that which will help us going further, Faf has been playing well right through the tournament, so that catch helped us to stall some of the momentum away from them."
The Unicorns will now face Washington Freedom in the final. The two sides have met twice already, including in the Qualifier where the Freedom took revenge for the Unicorns' win over them in the last match of the league stage.