Watching the highlights of today's final... I'm struck that it revolved around some of the finest fielding to have ever have graced the game: much was first rate.. and had Collingwood pulled off that stupendous 2nd slip catch whilst positioned nearer to 3rd slip he'd have eclipsed even these highpoints:That's all before we mention a fine slip catch by Strauss, and good take by Bell, some excellent run-outs and then all the excellent fielding that did NOT make news: Hodge flicking the ball up just inside the rope and the colleague throwing in right over the bails was one that stuck in my mind... but it struck me as characteristic of the high general standard rather than as a moment of brilliance amid dross.

The match was played with a high level of intensity by both sides and the incidents you mentioned showed 100% commitment by the players - desperation even. The fielding was outstanding but even that was eclipsed by the superb bowling of Plunkett who bowled at 140-143 KM/h (87-89 MPH) and got late outswing with the seam perfectly upright. His dismissal of Gilchrist was a beauty. This begs the question posed by Ian Chappell after Collingwood, at third slip, dropped one diving to his left - why didn't England employ three slips?

Heres a question while on the subject of fielding.. If on the last ball, the team require a 6 to win... Can the opposing team stand behind the ropes and jump and push the ball back into play if their feet are not touching the ground at the moment of touching the ball or is this illegal and it counts as a six... Anyone know?

Probobly not if its caught behind the rope but the batting team could probobly run six if every is on the boundry because they probobly wont be able to hit the stumps from that far back.

It doesn't work. The boundary is scored as soon as the ball crosses the line, so the ball would be dead in your example before the fielders could push it back in, and of course the batsman would have his six.

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I always thought that a six is only given once the ball hits the ground beyond (or on) the bounday line. So a man in mid air pushing the ball onto the field of play would save runs. Paul Franks did it at the Twenty20 Final for Notts in the summer.

That is what I believed as well.. Should his feet have left the floor as well then I would have thought this was possible otherwise it would be a difficult call for umpires to judge whether the ball has crossed the boundary if a fielder is jumping close to boundary rope

NE and Tresco: you are quite right. Apologies for that. The Law (it's 19.3) requires the ball to be grounded beyond the boundary in the opinion of the umpire. So I suppose if you hit it hard enough, you could put it into orbit and not get a boundary. You'd have to hit it pretty hard though.

__________________
Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

What about Viv richards and his five run outs in the 75 world cup final?

It's fine to be over the boundary line (in the air) and push the ball back in. However, not if the fieldsman crossed the boundary line (one foot on the ground over the line) and jumped from beyond the boundary line.