Australia’s pursuit of 316 runs in the crucial ODI series decider at Wanderers encountered a significant setback early on when Marco Jansen delivered a double-wicket maiden over. They teetered on the verge of a deeper crisis, were it not for a rather embarrassing mishap on the field.
The lanky left-arm fast bowler, in the midst of the 10th over with the score at 59/2, managed to induce a high skyward shot from Mitchell Marsh. However, the fielders failed to coordinate effectively, resulting in a comical blunder that will be remembered for years to come.
Marsh’s top-edged shot sailed towards square leg, where Gerald Coetzee was stationed. Coetzee needed to cover some ground to his left to reach the ball. Simultaneously, Aiden Markram from short midwicket decided to pursue the ball in the hope of making the catch. But he soon realized that he was much farther away from the ball than his teammate.
Consequently, he abruptly halted in his tracks and knelt down to closely observe Coetzee’s actions. In an unfortunate turn of events, just as Coetzee was about to make the catch, the 22-year-old took his eyes off the ball and instead looked bewilderingly at Markram, mistakenly thinking that Markram was going for the catch as well. As a result, the cricket ball dropped awkwardly between the two stranded fielders, landing hardly a foot away from Coetzee, much to Jansen’s evident dismay.
— Cric Browse (@CricBrowse) September 17, 2023
Unsurprisingly, Twitter users were quick to draw parallels between this mishap and the memorable drop committed by Saeed Ajmal and Shoaib Malik in an ODI against West Indies over a decade ago. The dropped catch became an instant talking point on social media.