Watch: World Cup's 'No. 1 Catch' By New Zealand Star Mitchell Santner, ICC Issues 'Screamer Alert'
Once again, the New Zealand cricket team proved why they are the team to beat in the ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 as they delivered yet another clinical show with a huge win over Afghanistan. The Hashmatullah Shahidi-led Afghanistan came into the match with a lot of promise after their amazing victory over defending champions England. But against New Zealand, Afghanistan fizzled out in all three departments. Batting first, New Zealand set the target of 288 runs at a loss of six wickets for Afghanistan.
In reply, the Afghanistan chase never really took off as they were dismissed for only 139 runs, thus slumping to a 149-run loss. While Afghanistan dropped several catches, New Zealand trumped them in that aspect too. Perhaps the best example of it was Mitchell Santner's catch of Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi on the bowling of Lockie Ferguson.
The catch happened on the last ball of the 14th over, with Santner taking a near-improbable catch. On a short ball by Lockie Ferguson, Hashmatullah Shahidi went for a pull shot, but it looked mistimed. Santner then leaped and ran backwards to take the terrific catch.
Watch the video here.
ICC posted the video of the catch on its Instagram handle with the caption, "Screamer alert."