Super Finch a Yorkshire favourite

Dean Wilson is the cricket correspondent for the UK's Daily Mirror

They say catches win matches. And they’re right.

England haven’t caught so much as a cold lately and how many games have they won in the last few months? Exactly.

Nothing gets the crowd more excited than a truly sensational catch. Fours and sixes are ten-a-penny in these T20 heavy days.

But the truly outstanding, mouth-opening, eye-popping, acrobatic catch can lift the crowd, energise the team, and turn a game.

And over on these shores there can be no better example than Yorkshire’s dynamic duo Adam Lyth and Aaron Finch who pulled off something remarkable against Leicestershire in the England domestic T20 competition.

We’ve all seen those catches where a player takes the catch on the boundary, but before he crosses it, he flips it into the air, steps back and then comes back into the field of play to complete the catch.

Well, Lyth and Finch have taken it one step further by flicking the ball to each other.

The pair actually did it against Lancashire in a local derby three weeks beforehand, and it was rated as the catch of the season.

This week they went even better as Lyth dived across the ropes and while in mid air, flicked the ball towards Finch who had to dive forward one handed to take the catch an inch above the ground.

Watch the video above – it is truly awesome.

Finch joked afterwards that the pair would have to work on their routine to avoid such a difficult one handed catch next time, but he could afford to smile because Yorkshire not only won the game by 14 runs, but the duo were jointly named men-of-the-match.

It was the second such prize for Finch who has settled into life as an honorary Tyke (Yorkshireman) happily.

Runs in T20 cricket are only to be expected from the big-hitting opener, but his 110 against Warwickshire in his last first-class game has made him a firm fan favourite.

The arrival of high profile overseas players to domestic T20 cricket this season has been a boost to the tournament, but it still lags well behind the Indian Premier League.

The richest domestic T20 league in the world can afford to bring in the very best and biggest names, while every other league must make do with a sprinkling of stardust.

But as Finch and Lyth showed the other night, names in lights are not everything.

What matters more than the name, is the quality of the cricket and that is where the Big Bash and its UK counterpart stand out in my mind.

These are the two leagues with consistently high quality cricket being played by the vast majority of the players.

It doesn’t matter who you are, there are precious few easy runs or wickets to be had, just ask Kevin Pietersen who is still searching for his best form for Surrey.

In the Midlands, Peter Siddle has been putting in a shift for Nottinghamshire this season and his 34 wickets are one of the big reasons they currently sit on top of the Championship table.

Siddle resumed his battle with Jonathan Trott this week and even though the bowler got his man at the start of a thrilling final day, it was Nottinghamshire who ended up being defeated. 

And it was New South Welshman turned England wicket-keeper Tim Ambrose who was the thorn in Siddle’s side, cracking an unbeaten 82 to seal victory for Warwickshire.

The impact of the overseas players on the County game are there for all to see, whether it is Jesse Ryder at Essex or Saeed Ajmal at Worcestershire firing them to the top of their respective competition table.

In the case of Middlesex their four-day captain Chris Rogers has been carrying much of the batting workload on his shoulders, and even more so since the selection of Sam Robson for England.

Rogers is in the middle of an ongoing battle with Samit Patel to be the Championship’s top run scorer, with both men within a ton of reaching 1,000 runs for the season so far.

Middlesex (and indeed any cricket fan with a passing interest) realise that T20 cricket is not really ‘Buck’s’ game and so they have been looking towards another Aussie to help them in that department.

Dan Christian announced himself with 129 against Kent earlier in the season, but even he has not been able to halt their slide in the shortest format.

Middlesex won’t be going anywhere near finals day this season, but down in Hampshire Glenn Maxwell is chipping in with useful cameos that will make them a force to be reckoned with at the business end.

Maxwell has been signed on a T20 contract with Shane Warne’s old club, but the news from the South Coast is that he will soon be featuring regularly in their first-class team in place of South African Kyle Abbott who has been called up for the Proteas.