A student took a stunning left-handed catch in the crowd to win $50,000 dollars (£26,000) from New Zealand beer company Tui during Australia’s record win over the Blackcaps on Friday.
Mitchell Grimstone, 20, was in the bumper crowd for the T20 clash at Eden Park when he plucked Ross Taylor’s huge six out of the sky to bank the cash.
Tui’s Catch a Million promotion was reintroduced to the 2017-2018 cricket season in New Zealand after a two-year hiatus, with 23 new opportunities to win a share of $1,000,000.
Sounds easy enough? Wrong. Up until Friday morning, only one person had achieved such a feat. That was until Grimstone, an Auckland University student, made the most of his prime position in the front row of the crowd at deep square-leg.
New Zealand batsman Taylor smashed a maximum, giving the boundary fielder no chance, and Grimstone was there ready to take all the plaudits, earning a cool $50,000.
The rules of the game are as follows:
- You must be wearing one of the Tui Catch a Million promotional t-shirts.
- You must be within one of the specified ‘catching zones’.
- You must catch a six cleanly, and one-handed.
After Grimstone’s heroics, the Aussies set a new world-record at Eden Park, chasing down 243 to eclipse the previous biggest successful run chase in T20 history.
New Zealand had earlier posted 243-6, racking up the highest score against Australia in T20 internationals.
