Watch: Gloucestershire all-rounder Zafar Gohar took an incredible diving catch off the bowling of David Payne in their T20 Blast clash with Essex.
Gloucestershire set their hosts 196 to win, after Ben Charlesworth hit a scintillating 52 from just 20 balls.
Essex fought back after losing Adam Rossington early on, with Feroze Khushi and Robin Das duly kicking the scoring rate on.
On return from injury, Gloucestershire left-arm quick David Payne gave his team some hope in the chase by clinching Gohar’s wicket – but Gohar deserves the brunt of the credit for the dismissal.
From around the wicket, Payne tempted into Khushi charging down the wicket by firing a nasty back-of-a-length delivery at the 23-year-old. Khushi didn’t have time to fully pull out of the shot and could only direct the ball towards backward point.
With the ball looking like it was going to split the point fielder and the player stationed at short-third man, substitute fielder Gohar sprawled for the rapidly descending leather and threw out his left arm.
The ball seemingly stuck in his hand and Gohar – who has one Test and one ODI cap to his name for Pakistan – hit the deck.
Essex would not let their momentum slip, however, and Robin Das flew to a match-winning 69 off 33 balls, with Tom Westley’s 31* getting them over the line.
Watch Zafar Gohar’s stunning catch here:
One to watch over and over again from Zafar Gohar! 🤩
Is this the best catch of #Blast23 so far? pic.twitter.com/6G1WG3APZQ
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) May 30, 2023