‘I wish I had a durry in my mouth’: How cricket fan took all-time crowd catch while juggling two vodka cans

Harry Gill was enjoying a quiet evening at the cricket with a mate, watching Australia’s first match in Darwin for 17 years, with two cold cans of vodka lemonade nestled in the palm of his right hand.

Then, in the 12th over of Australia’s opening T20 international against South Africa, came a hard, flat six off the bat of Tim David.

“I had a bit of time, but it was just coming straight for me,” Gill told this masthead. “I was praying I didn’t drop it like [Broncos star] Ben Hunt did in the 2015 grand final.”

What followed was a crowd catch for the ages as Gill took a one-handed blinder with his left hand while clutching both drinks in his right, without spilling a drop.

Most assumed Gill, a 26-year-old pilot from Darwin, was drinking beer. But he was actually nursing a couple of Brookvale Union vodka lemonades.

“The lemonade ones are bloody good. I’ve got a bit of a hangover this morning,” Gill said with a laugh. “It just stuck. My hand is a bit sore this morning but, yeah, happy with it. My phone is blowing up.”

Gill’s grab earned him more than just a viral moment. “People I haven’t spoken to in 10 years have been in contact,” Gill said, while a multivitamin company has promised a lifetime’s supply of its product.

Gill was wearing a cap bearing the brand Good Day, a multivitamin launched by Tom Birmingham and Eddy Simpson, hosts of the Hello Sport podcast.

“We are dead serious about lifetime supply,” Birmingham said. “Natural life, of course. Once he’s dead, we will turn the subscription off. We’re getting his address and he’ll be getting whatever. We’ll have something dropped off at his house every month. We’re going to fly him down to Sydney at the end of the year for our Christmas party.

“It’s like the multivitamin gods are smiling on us. The catch was phenomenal. Two cans in the hand means he’s an alpha male. He looked excited and pleased with himself, but also, in a way, like he does it all the time.

“This will be shown forever, like that guy smoking the dart behind the sight screen.”

Birmingham was referring to the famous crowd catch taken by Channel Nine cameraman Tony Fox in 1987, when Ian Botham launched Simon O’Donnell down the ground for six.

Fox took the catch two-handed, then threw it back before taking a drag of a cigarette already in his mouth.

Gill said his dad had sent him the clip on Monday morning, but the new social media star isn’t putting himself in the same league.

“His is so much cooler, bro,” Gill said. “I wish I had a durry [cigarette] in my mouth so I could have done that.

“The South African cricketer that was in front of me said it was a pretty good catch.”

Former Australian cricketer and Fox commentator Mark Waugh, in reference to the 1987 effort, said of Gill’s catch: “You just need a smoke and you’d be right at home.”

The most remarkable part? Gill, a right-hander, was “double-parked” with two drinks in his right but managed to take the catch in his “bad” hand.

“It’s just obviously easier to go and buy two drinks than one,” Gill said. “The lines weren’t even that bad. It was just me being lazy. I got a few more tins to celebrate after. It turned out to be a pretty good game. I then just went home and watched a horror movie.”

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