Video: Jason Roy and Steven Finn's astonishing catches against Australia
England defeated Australia comfortably by a margin of 93 runs in the third ODI at Old Trafford on Tuesday to register their first win of the series. The visitors still lead the series 2-1 but Morgan & Co will be buoyed by the manner of victory yesterday.
The controversial ‘obstructing the field’ dismissal of Ben Stokes during the 2nd ODI was still the talking point heading into the contest at Machester yesterday, but luckily cricket took centre stage with some brilliant performances from both teams.
James Taylor notched up his maiden ODI ton while Aaron Finch recorded a half-century on his return to the national team after his injury lay off. English spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali impressed with the ball and so did Ashton Agar who was making his ODI debut for Australia.
The match also saw some brilliant catching, especially from the host team. England skipper Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy were nearly involved in a major collision as both attempted to catch the ball after a leading edge from Joe Burns. Luckily, it was a minor tumble for Morgan who held on to the catch to break the opening partnership.
A good catch no doubt but two better fielding efforts has put this catch in the back-burner. First was Steven Finn’s one-handed stunner at short mid-wicket to dismiss Steven Smith who had dished out his trademark leg-side flick. The fast bowler dived to his right and held on to the catch sparking off wild celebrations from the bowler Adil Rashid with the commentators wondering what a fast bowler like Finn was doing fielding at a close in position.
Jason Roy then produced another stunner late on with the match pretty much in the bag for England. Agar charged down the wicket to Liam Plunkett but could only lift his effort sky high to the long on region. Roy had a tough time adjudging the flight of the ball and started to come in way too much and was soon scampering back. He managed to fumble the catch in his first attempt but latched on to the effort second time around before tumbling on the ground.
Take a look at the two catches and have your say as to which one was better.