Australia all-rounder Ashton Agar completed an outrageous piece of boundary fielding in the opening Australia-England ODI at Adelaide to deny Dawid Malan a maximum at the back-end of the England innings.
That England were able to post a score as high as 287-9 was largely down to the exploits of Malan, who finished on 134 – the second highest score by an English No. 3 in an overseas ODI. Malan helped England recover first from 31-3, 66-4 and then 158-6 with no other England player passing 35.
In the final stages of England’s innings, Malan, on 131 at the time, looked to clear the leg side boundary off the bowling of Pat Cummins and it initially appeared that he had so before Agar leapt behind the boundary rope and parried it back into play, effectively saving five runs as Malan completed a single; Malan fell two deliveries later to the leg-spin of Adam Zampa, caught on the boundary by Agar. Agar had a spectacular day in the field – earlier on he ran out Liam Dawson with a superb direct hit from point.
Agar’s piece of fielding unsurprisingly caused a stir on social media.
Simply phenomenal from Ashton Agar.. 😮#BBCCricket #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/4zQ9krhUyW
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) November 17, 2022
Ashton Agar just breaking the laws of physics in the field
🎥: @FoxCricket @abcsport #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/0t0RJOEHa4
— Tom Wildie (@tomwildie) November 17, 2022
You can watch Agar’s boundary save below: