It’s been a great New Zealand tour of Ireland 2022 so far. While you’d think this was bound to be a one-sided series, it wasn’t at all. Ireland nearly pulled off a great surprise victory in the 1st ODI after scoring 300+ and almost defending that total. It was a record 20+ run final over from Michael Bracewell that got the visitors across the line.
New Zealand completed an easier victory in the 2nd ODI too while the third one was another thriller. The Kiwis put up 360 and not many people would’ve expected Ireland to make a match of this one at the Malahide Club. But they did, thanks to centuries from Paul Stirling and Harry Tector. But one of the major highlights in this game was a brilliant catch from Martin Guptill at cover.
Martin Guptill catch against Ireland
The Kiwi opener has always been considered to be one of the best fielders in world cricket, and he’s proved that on multiple occasions. Here, it was Mitchell Santner bowling to young Gareth Delany and you’ve got to say that this was the worst ball we saw him bowl all day. It was a wide and loopy delivery outside off stump and instead of leaving it to be called a wide, Delany decided to go after it.
He waited for the ball to come to him and he slapped it towards cover with all his might. He was dropped prior to this and he would’ve considered himself lucky, but he surely ran out of luck here. Most of us thought it had gone over cover and would’ve sped away for four, but the acrobatic Guptill completed a fantastic catch, and did so very nonchalantly too.
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This was the 39th over of the game and Ireland was racing away with the game when Guptill decided to complete this catch and balance things out a bit. He flew to his right and this one-handed blinder brought about the end of a fantastic little cameo from Delany, who got 22(16). Guptill just threw the ball away and didn’t even bother to celebrate this catch; just another day in the office from him.
Whether inside the circle or on the boundary, Guptill has always been a super safe fielder. All Indian fans will remember how he ran out MS Dhoni in the 2019 ICC World Cup semi final, which ended India’s dreams of winning the cup as well. And today would’ve been a super special catch, as it came a few hours after he brought up a brilliant century as well.
Batting first, New Zealand scored 360/6 and that was mostly due to a knock of 115(126) by the Kiwi opener. His knock included 15 fours and 2 sixes and he scored his 17th ODI century, now in his 191st appearance in this format of the game. It was surely a satisfying day at work for Guptill, being awarded the Man of the Match for this performance as well.
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