It seemed so spur of the moment. Adam Voges’ brilliant juggling catch on the long-on boundary to remove Brendon McCullum in the second-last over was the difference between victory and defeat for Australia. Had he stumbled over the boundary with the ball in hand, a six would have been called and New Zealand would almost certainly have won.

Instead, Voges lobbed the ball high back into play as he fell backwards, then tripped over the boundary as he crawled back onto the field to complete the take. He was part juggler, part tightrope walker and was cool enough to pull off the act in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

But circus-goers don’t see the hours of practice and neither had most of the Sydney fans seen Voges try a similar trick a fortnight ago in a state one-day game. On that occasion Queensland’s Nathan Reardon slammed the ball towards long-off and Voges took it cleanly while backing back, but again was going to fall over the boundary.

His Western Australia colleague Theo Doropoulos had also made good ground and was near the ball, so Voges lobbed it towards him and Doropoulos was credited with the catch. But like any good showman, Voges wasn’t about to be upstaged and turned the duet into a solo act at the SCG.