Nottinghamshire won the toss and elected to bat first in their 11th game of the season at Grace Road, Leicester. Joe Clarke gave them a solid start, scoring 72 off 41 balls. Supporting acts from Colin Munro, Matthew Montgomery, and Mullaney saw them post 165-8.

Calum Parkinson and Tom Scriven shared seven wickets for Leicester. In response, the hosts got off to a good start, with the opening partnership of Peter Handscomb and Nick Welch adding 63 runs in 8.5 overs.

However, it went downhill from there for the hosts. Mullaney was the wrecker-in-chief as he picked 3-18 off his four overs. One of those was of his counterpart Colin Ackermann, whom he dismissed with a bizarre return catch.

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Ackermann punched a short ball back towards the bowler aerially. What should have been an easy catch taken on the first attempt ended up being something seldom seen before. Mullaney juggled the ball as it bounced off his hand into the non-striker Wiaan Mulder’s chest.

Mulder did not have the time to get out of the way as he had not expected the ball to come in his direction. Luckily for Nottinghamshire, it bounced perfectly off Mulder’s chest and lobbed straight at Mullaney, who juggled it a couple of times before finally completing the catch.

Ackerman’s was the fourth wicket to fall. Leicestershire needed 84 in 47 balls with only six wickets in hand. Mulder stuck around and scored 38 off 26, but did not get much support as they fell short by 22 runs in the end.

Watch Mullaney take a bizarre return catch off the non-striker’s chest in T20 Blast

Have you ever seen anything like that?!

Steven Mullaney uses the non-striker to help take his catch 🤯#Blast23 pic.twitter.com/5YVFs9n41u

— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 20, 2023