Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. James Wharton takes his much-talked about diving catch to dismiss Sussex’s Tom Haines from the bowling of Jack White this morning.
James Wharton is a man with a very dry sense of humour, so you just knew that he’d come out with a response to make you smile when asked about his morning catch of Tom Haines.
Wharton lit up the opening day of Yorkshire’s Rothesay County Championship clash with Sussex at Scarborough with a stunner of a grab to help get rid of the left-handed opener.
Haines tried to whip a Jack White ball over mid-wicket into the Popular Bank Stand, only to sky a top-edge.
Wharton, fielding at a shortish mid-wicket, hared after the ball towards deep square-leg and dived full length, holding onto the ball mid-air to leave Sussex at 19-1.
It was a truly great catch. If there’s been one better across the country this summer, it would be a major, major surprise.
But the competition’s X account went one step further, describing it as, ‘Possibly the greatest catch of all time’.
“I completely agree with that statement, yeah,” said Wharton, completely dead-pan before trying to rank it in his own greatest hits.
“That and the one at the Roses match (Emirates Old Trafford earlier this month, Luke Wells diving forwards at long-on) are probably the two of my best.”
Asked to talk us through today’s catch, the White Rose batter continued: “Tom Haines hit the shot, it went up in the air and I started running thinking, ‘I’m not going to get anywhere near it’. But it was like the ball just sort of stopped in the air for a while as I was running. So, I was like, ‘Oh, bloody hell, I might have a chance here’.
“It’s one of those where you just hope it hits your hand and sticks, and obviously it did.
“I wouldn’t have stuck a dive in if I didn’t think I could reach it.
“My only concern was I didn’t actually look where the rope was or where people were.
“I was obviously lucky that I wasn’t anywhere near the rope.”
Sussex, inserted, ended the day on 210-9.
The Wharton catch helped Jack White claim his first of three wickets as the new-ball seamer had an excellent day, only conceding 21 runs in 17 overs.
Wharton added: “If you’d have said to us that we’d have them 210-9 overnight, we’d have absolutely bitten your hand off for it.
“Obviously having them nine down for as long as we did is a bit frustrating, but we’ve had a great day there.
“Wickets being shared around is because they all went well as a unit and kept it tight all day. Credit to the lads because they put a real shift in.”
