London: Ben Stokes catch video’ started trending on Twitter and YouTube even before the ICC World Cup 2019 opener between England and South Africa had ended and it continued to top the charts hours after Imran Tahir was the last man to be dismissed as England started their World Cup campaign on a great note by beating South Africa by 104 runs at The Oval on Thursday.
Stokes bagged man-of-the-match display in England victory with one of the greatest catches in World Cup history.
Diving backwards to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo with a one-handed take on the boundary off Adil Rashid, Stokes’ sensational effort was immediately labelled “the catch of the century” by former England spinner Phil Tufnell.
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The catch was taken in the 35th over of the South Africa chase when Andile Phehlukwayo in his attempt to wallop Adil Rashid but did not quite get the elevation. At first impression, the ball seemed to be going over Stokes’ head, who was standing in the deep square-leg boundary but the England all-rounder leapt and bent and flung his right hand to grab a sensational catch.
Stokes’ catch though did not have a world of impact on the match as England by then were firmly in the driver seat. But the catch was of course, not the only contribution Stokes had made on Thursday.
It was the culmination of a remarkable day for Stokes, who also top-scored for England with 89 in 79 balls and took the last two wickets in successive balls to finish off the South Africans.
England captain Eoin Morgan said at the presentation that he was extremely impressed with Ben Stokes.
Eoin Morgan said, “Extremely impressed. Stokes had a field day and especially that catch he took was absolutely outstanding. To have a match-winner like that in the side, he is someone who lifts absolutely everybody and I thought the bowling unit really did get off to a great start and continued to learn from the first innings and then put into place in second innings.”