The BBL has seen a second phenomenal display of fielding on the boundary rope in two nights after Sydney Sixers opener Jordan Silk’s heroics against the Hobart Hurricanes.
Silk, who has become known as one of the best fielders in the BBL, showed exactly why he has that reputation with an insane bit of athleticism saving a certain six in his side’s 14-run win.
The play happened in the 13th over of the Hurricanes’ innings with veteran spinner Steve O’Keefe bowling to Peter Handscomb, when Handscomb thought he’d smacked a full toss for six over the midwicket boundary.
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However, as Jake Fraser-McGurk did 24 hours earlier, Silk jumped in the air and caught the ball one-handed, but had to throw the ball back into the field of play as he fell over the rope.
The play left Australian cricket greats Brett Lee and Brad Haddin stunned on commentary for Fox Cricket.
“This guy is a freak. He does it at training for fun,” Lee said.
“Watch how hard this is – to balance, to time, he gets up, that is unbelievable. He should’ve been the goalie for Man United.”
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“It’s not a fluke. These guys train for this for hours and hours,” Haddin added.
“They spend the last bit of training having some fun with each other and see who can take the best catch on the rope, and Jordan Silk does it year-in, year-out for the Sixers.”
The reigning BBL champions continued their perfect start to the season, but not before an early scare which saw them slump to 5-39 batting first.
Sixers captain Moises Henriques rescued his side after a slow start, scoring his second half-century in as many matches, with his 48-ball 73 helping the team to a score of 9-144 off its 20 overs.
In response, Hurricanes opener D’Arcy Short could not find his way through the infield during the powerplay overs, with his painstaking 21 coming off 36 deliveries.
When Short eventually fell with the score on 41 in the 10th over, the Hurricanes’ required run-rate had ballooned to over 10 runs an over.
Handscomb did his best to bring the Hurricanes home with an enterprising innings of 47 off just 31 deliveries, but he ran out of time as the Sixers’ English duo of Chris Jordan (1-20) and Tom Curran (3-27) applied a stranglehold during the death overs to secure the win.