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The incident took place on the second ball of the 53rd over of England’s first innings, which was bowled by Tim Southee.
Glenn Phillips takes flying catch. (Picture Credit: Screengrab)
New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips, who is one of the best fielders of all time, produced a super effort on the field on Friday (November 29) during the second day’s play of the ongoing first Test between New Zealand and England in Christchurch. During the third session of Day 2’s play of the match taking place at Hagley Oval, Phillips dived to his right to complete a flying catch of England wicketkeeper-batter Ollie Pope with his one hand.
The incident took place on the second ball of the 53rd over of England’s first innings, which was bowled by Tim Southee. Pope tried to play a cut shot, but he was caught by Phillips.
He returned back to the pavilion after making 77 runs from 98 balls. During his stay at the crease, Pope, who came out to bat at No. 6, hammered eight fours and added 151 runs for the fifth wicket with Harry Brook, who finished the second day’s play at an individual score of 132 runs from 163 balls.
Pope and Brook helped England bounce back from 71 for 4 in 21.2 overs and cut down New Zealand’s lead to just 29 runs at the end of Day 2. For the visitors, apart from the duo, opener Ben Duckett scored 46 runs, and captain Ben Stokes is batting on 37 runs from 76 balls. But it was a forgetful day for former captain and world No. 1 Test batter Joe Root, who failed to open his account and returned back to the dugout for a four-ball duck.
Root, who has been in red-hot form in 2024, was clean bowled by debutant Nathan Smith. Apart from Root, opening batter Zak Crawley was also not able to open his account.
Earlier in the morning session of the second day, despite Phillips’ unbeaten half-century, the Kiwis could only manage to score 348 runs in the first inning. Phillips, who was signed by the Gujarat Titans on Day 2 of the IPL 2025 mega auction, scored 58 runs from 87 balls. He added 27 runs for the ninth wicket with Tim Southee (15) and 23 runs for the last wicket with William O’Rourke.
