After Ben Stokes held that catch on the first morning of the fourth Test – the diving one-handed pluck at the edge of the slip cordon that left Stuart Broad in wide-eyed shock at his good fortune – three men tried to recreate it on day two. It will come as no surprise to learn that out of Nasser Hussain, Steve Smith and Joe Root it was the former Test captain in a slip-catching demonstration for Sky Sports before play – rather than the two future ones out in the middle – who was unsuccessful.
Hussain’s was a valiant effort for a 47-year-old whose fingers seemed to break every second Test match during his playing career. The England fielding coach, Chris Taylor, fed the ball to professional nicker and team manager Phil Neale and, flying low to his right, he just failed to hang on.
While the old pro snarled at the drop, the exhibition did serve to remind onlookers, if required, just how damn hard such takes are. It was also, of course, without the pressure of a full house in the highest-profile Test series of all, with an extra 10mph on the ball.
Both Smith’s and Root’s efforts were face-saving for colleagues too. The former, standing at second slip, gave Mitchell Johnson a wicket he scarcely deserved off the ball after his figures had passed 100 and it ended a carefree stand of 58 between Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad that harked back to their game-changing alliance at Edgbaston.
Pitching the ball back of a length with a hint of away movement, the left-armer teased Moeen into a drive that was fired fast to Smith’s left. The 26-year-old’s razor-sharp reflexes are well-documented – many believe him the best fielder in the world – yet still it was a champagne one-handed pouch.
Root’s after lunch, removing Chris Rogers on 52, ended 107 minutes of creeping angst and will have been of huge relief for his coach, Taylor. The former Gloucestershire batsman will have felt somewhat sheepish after his rare and enlightening television interview before play was followed by regulation drops from Alastair Cook and Ian Bell.
Root by this stage had already had something of a trial run, holding a low, looping effort at third slip off the same batsman the over before, only for Mark Wood’s extended stride in delivering the shock short ball to mean the wicket was scrubbed off.
As if not to be outdone by Smith, the man with whom we expect him to lock horns as captain in Ashes Tests to come, the Yorkshireman settled those assembled at Trent Bridge with a flying effort of equal audacity.
Stokes was the bowler this time, sending down a swerving outswinger at which Rogers could only grope. The edge was taken, red leather whooshed and Root, at full stretch, hung on left-handed to spark wild celebrations.
Of the three classic catches in a presumably Ashes-sealing Test Stokes’s effort on the first day will be the most reminisced about in years to come, such was its breathtaking nature. Like Andrew Strauss’s on this ground in 2005, when the edge of Adam Gilchrist’s bat turned Lord Brocket into Lord Rocket, the all-rounder’s snaffle came mid-collapse.But do not forget Root and Smith, who on a pulsating follow-up day produced acrobatic, impressive impersonations.
