'The greatest catch you will ever see'

Ben Laughlin labelled it a "Hail Mary", Jake Weatherald admitted he put "a bit of mayo" on it but Travis Head perhaps summed it up best.

"It's the best catch I've ever seen," the Adelaide Strikers captain told cricket.com.au.

The duo of Laughlin and Weatherald pulled off the miraculous feat during the Strikers’ 26-run win on Monday evening, combining for what is undoubtedly up there as one of the most spectacular sequences of fielding ever seen in the KFC Big Bash League.

After Melbourne Renegades allrounder Dwayne Bravo miscued one of his favourite lofted cover drives off leg-spinner Rashid Khan, athletic fast bowler Ben Laughlin took off from wide long-off in pursuit of the skied ball.

Noted as one of the competition’s better fielders who only 10 days earlier hung on to an impressive full-length diving snare in Alice Springs, the speedy Laughlin made up remarkable ground to first complete the jumping catch above his head without breaking stride.

Swiftly realising he was only two steps from the boundary rope, a diving Laughlin had the presence of mind to leap headfirst over the rope and, while in mid-air, flick the ball backhanded in the direction of Weatherald.

Weatherald found himself well positioned, shifting to his left and completing a comparatively straightforward catch to complete the astonishing piece of teamwork.

"I knew he was over there and then when I threw it, I kind of saw him," Laughlin told cricket.com.au.

"I didn't realise I was actually that close (to the rope), and then it was panic stations. Then I just hoped Jakey wasn't drifting at cover and threw it towards him.

"It was a Hail Mary. But then I was like, 'oh, now he's actually coming over a bit so it’s all right'. (It was) a fluke."

Weatherald conceded he’d only really ran towards Laughlin because he wanted to "get around him" in anticipation of his teammate’s catch.

"I just thought I was a bystander at the start," Weatherald told cricket.com.au. "Benny went and took the catch and then took a few more steps than he probably needed to.

"He just managed to throw it so much further and I couldn't believe I was in the game.

"I just thought I was cruising around ready to get around him, and then I (realised) I was in the game.

"I chucked a bit of mayo on at the end with a little bit of a dive to make the crowd get up and about.

"But it was all Benny in the end. I didn't really do anything."

Weatherald topped it off by celebrating with Bravo's 'Champion' dance move, made famous during the West Indies World T20-winning campaign in 2016.

Head, who'd earlier struck 58 and put on 88 for the third wicket with import Colin Ingram (68 off 36 balls) to lift the visitors to 5-173, said the Laughlin-Weatherald effort nipped a potentially dangerous partnership before it had the chance to flourish.

"I had a pretty good view at cover, it was an unbelievable effort," Head told cricket.com.au.

"Benny has produced that a few times. The skill to be able to flick it back and 'Weathers' to be alert enough to be on it.

"It was a big moment in the game with Bravo and Pollard going, he (Bravo) can be quite dangerous so it was nice to see the back of him."

Asked if there's some injustice in the fact the catch goes down in the scorebook as "caught Weatherald", the Strikers opener said tongue-in-cheek: "There is probably but I'll take it. Two catches and three runs – it was a pretty productive night for me."

Etihad Stadium is a unique playing arena; other BBL venues all have their lights positioned at the top of high-up towers. The Docklands ground's retractable roof would make such towers obsolete, and it instead has lights built into the stadium’s infrastructure above the third tier of seating.

It means that while firmly-hit flat catches can be more difficult to catch out of the stadium’s lights, balls that are skied straight up tend to be simpler to track than at other venues where fielders can lose the ball in the glare of the towers.

"We did a fair few high balls yesterday," said Laughlin. "So that was good.

"It just felt good."

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