'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The 2023 World Cup has gotten off to a brilliant start. We've seen some stunning knocks, both hard-hitting on flat tracks and the more nuanced ones in Chennai and Hyderabad. There have been some brilliant spells, of attrition and consistency on helpful wickets and of variation and guile in Delhi and Ahmedabad.
Amid this, what has mainly gone unnoticed is the standard of fielding. But fielding in cricket is like defending in football; generally, the less a common eye notices a center-back in a match, the better they have been. The fact that we haven't seen brouhaha over a particular team's fielding, shows it has overall been pretty good.
There haven't been a lot of breath-taking runouts so far but some of the catches have been top-notch. Here's the best of the lot from the first week:
#3 Trent Boult - New Zealand
New Zealand are quickly burying ghosts of the 2019 World Cup. They thumped the defending champions England in their 2023 World Cup opener in Ahmedabad. Then, Trent Boult, who dropped Ben Stokes' crucial catch in the 2019 World Cup final at long-on, took a brilliant one at long-off against the Netherlands.
Dutch all-rounder Bas de Leede skied one against left-arm spinner Rachin Ravindra while batting at 18 in a chase of 323. Boult caught it over his head while stepping back. The momentum pushed him out behind the ropes but he threw the ball in the air, stepped out, timed his jump, and grabbed it again perfectly.
In 2019, he misjudged the boundary ropes and touched it with his heels and it became one of the many reasons the match slipped out of New Zealand's hands. Here, New Zealand registered a massive 99-run win.
#2 Rahmat Shah - Afghanistan
Afghan batter Rahmat Shah's one-handed stunner to dismiss Bangladesh's Mehidy Hasan Miraz in the third match was arguably the first headline-making catch of the 2023 World Cup.
Bangladesh were cruising in their chase of a lowly 157-run target. Mehidy got a lofted drive off the toe end of his bat to mid-off.
It wasn't at a great pace and the ball was looping over his head but Rahmat angled his body and timed his leap brilliantly to pluck it. He also did well to hold on to it while falling on the ground.
#1 Dushan Hemantha - Sri Lanka
Sub-catches always carry a bit of extra weight. It's the 12th man making the effort for the team despite sitting out for most of the time. Sri Lanka's Dushan Hemantha put up one such effort against Pakistan in the eighth match of the 2023 World Cup.
Sri Lanka scored 344 while batting first and Abdullah Shafique's scintillating century brought Pakistan back into the game and gave it the shape of a thriller. At 113, he crunched a cut against Matheesha Pathirana to the right of point.
It traveled rapidly but Hemantha was quicker in his full-stretched dive, catching it with both of his hands, a good few inches in the air from head to toe.
