Women’s World Cup: Ashleigh Gardner took a splendid catch to dismiss Laura Wolvaardt.© AFP
The ongoing Women’s World Cup has witnessed some incredible catches already. On Tuesday, two more were added to that list, both moments of magic coming during the South Africa Women vs Australia Women clash at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. The first came during the South African innings. In the 46th over, Laura Wolvaardt tried to clear the mid-wicket boundary and would have probably managed it, if not for Ashleigh Gardner. The Australian jumped and plucked the ball out of thin air to complete an absolutely sensational one-handed catch. The South Africans were not to be outdone in the field as Mignon du Preez returned the favour, taking in equally brilliant catch during Australia’s chase.
Du Preez, who was also stationed at the mid-wicket boundary, went airborne, diving to the right to take the catch that saw the back of the dangerous Rachael Haynes.
Cricket World Cup’s Instagram handle shared a split video as well as individual videos of these two incredible catches. Which do you think was better?
In the end, it was Australia who came out trumps in the match to continue their unbeaten run in the tournament. The Australians sit pretty at the top of the table with six wins from as many matches.
South Africa, on the other hand, suffered their first defeat of the tournament, and occupy second place in the points table with four wins from five games.
Australia had won the toss and elected to bowl.
A brilliant 90 from Wolvaardt and a well-made 52 off 51 balls from captain Sune Luus helped lay the foundation for the South Africans.
Promoted
Marizanne Kapp scored an unbeaten 30 off just 21 balls while Chloe Tryon blasted a 7-ball 17 as South Africa scored 43 runs off the last four overs to post a competitive 271 for five in 50 overs.
Australia made short work of the chase thanks to an unbeaten 135 from captain Meg Lanning. The Aussies chased down the target in just 45.2 overs with five wickets remaining.
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